Cruel As The Grave

Meanwhile Fire and Death went three times around the room. Then Fire

paused near a little corner tête-à-tête sofa, on which a young girl,

dressed as Janet Foster the little Puritan, was seated quite alone; and

turning to her escort, she said: "I am tired and thirsty. I will take this vacant seat for a while and

trouble you to go and fetch me a glass of lemonade."

"With pleasure!" gallantly assented Death, starting off promptly and

zealously to execute her commands.

Sybil seated herself beside the young girl on the sofa, and laying her

hand upon her shoulder, whispered: "Trix."

"There!" exclaimed the girl, starting. "Every one knows me, even you."

"Well, everybody knows me also, even you," said Sybil.

"It is very provoking."

"Very."

"When I had taken so much pains to disguise myself too."

"Yes, and I also."

"You? Why you took the very means to reveal your self, wearing a dress

so perfectly adapted to your nature. Anybody might have known you,"

pouted Trix.

"Yes, anybody might have known me; but I do not think that anybody

would have done so, if it had not been for a certain 'expert' who,

detecting the 'correspondences,' as he calls them, divulged the secret

to the whole room," explained Sybil.

"Well, somebody found you out, and did it by the fitness of your costume

too. But as for me, nothing could be more opposite in character than

Janet Foster the Puritan maiden, and Beatrix Pendleton the wild

huntress. We are about as much alike as sage tea and sparkling hock.

Why, see here, Sybil; in order to throw every one off the track of me, I

took a character as unlike mine as it was possible to find, and yet I

have not succeeded in concealing my identity. And this has provoked me

to such an extent that I have left the dance."

"And so I find you sulking here. Well, Trix, I will tell you how they

found you out. You and I are known to be the two smallest women in the

whole neighborhood. After having found me out, through the divination of

a magician, it was easy to see that the other small woman must be you."

"Oh, I see; but it is perfectly exasperating!"

"So it is; but you may get some fun out of it yet, Trix, by turning the

tables upon them all."

"How? Tell me! I'll do anything to get the better of them."

"I cannot tell you now, for here comes my escort with my lemonade, and

this matter must remain a secret between you and me. But listen: in

fifteen minutes from this time slip away and go to my bedroom. You know

the way, and you will find it empty. I will join you there, and tell you

my plan," said Sybil, in a very low tone.