I was of no mind to look further.
If this was not Ellen, then there was no Ellen there for me!
Around and around we passed, borne on the limpid shining stream of the
waltz music, as melancholy as it was joyous; music that was young; for
youth is ever full of melancholy and wonder and mystery. We danced. Now
and again I saw her little feet peep out. I felt her weight rest light
against my arm. I caught the indescribable fragrance of her hair. A gem
in the gold comb now and then flashed out; and now and again I saw her
eyes half raised, less often now, as though the music made her dream.
But yet I could have sworn I saw a dimple in her cheek through the mask,
and a smile of mockery on her lips.
I have said that her gown was dark, black laces draping over a close
fitted under bodice; and there was no relief to this somberness
excepting that in the front of the bodice were many folds of lacy lawn,
falling in many sheer pleats, edge to edge, gathered at the waist by a
girdle confined by a simple buckle of gold. Now as I danced, myself
absorbed so fully that I sought little analysis of impressions so
pleasing, I became conscious dimly of a faint outline of some figure in
color, deep in these folds of lacy lawn, an evanescent spot or blur of
red, which, to my imagination, assumed the outline of a veritable heart,
as though indeed the girl's heart quite shone through! If this were a
trick I could not say, but for a long time I resisted it.
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