"
"But you did not know it until now--until this very moment. You did not
know me--could not remember me--not even when the masks were off! Ah, it
was good as a play!"
"I have done nothing else but remember you."
"How much I should value your acquaintance, Mr. Cowles of Virginia! How
rare an opportunity you have given me of seeing on the inside of a man's
heart." She spoke half bitterly, and I saw that in one way or other she
meant revenge.
"I do not understand you," I rejoined.
"No, I suppose you men are all alike--that any one of you would do the
same. It is only the last girl, the nearest girl, that is remembered. Is
it not so?"
"It is not so," I answered.
"How long will you remember me this time--me or my clothes, Mr. Cowles?
Until you meet another?"
"All my life," I said; "and until I meet you again, in some other
infinite variety. Each last time that I see you makes me forget all the
others; but never once have I forgotten _you_."
"In my experience," commented the girl, sagely, "all men talk very much
alike."
"Yes, I told you at the masked ball," said I, "that sometime I would see
you, masks off. Was it not true? I did not at first know you when you
broke up my match with Orme, but I swore that sometime I would know you.
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