The Midnight Queen [16]
him for information. Surely that is she we are in search of."
"It certainly is!" said Ormiston. "Where are the wonders of this
night to end?"
"Satan and La Masque only know; for they both seem to have united
to drive me mad. Where is she?"
"Where, indeed?" said Ormiston; "where is last year's snow?" And
Sir Norman, looking round at the spot where she had stood a
moment before, found that she, too, had disappeared.
CHAPTER IV.
THE STRANGER.
The two friends looked at each other in impressive silence for a
moment, and spake never a word. Not that they were astonished -
they were long past the power of that emotion: and if a cloud
had dropped from the sky at their feet, they would probably have
looked at it passively, and vaguely wonder if the rest would
follow. Sir Norman, especially, had sank into a state of mind
that words are faint and feeble to describe. Ormiston, not being
quite so far gone, was the first to open his lips.
"Upon my honor, Sir Norman, this is the most astonishing thing
ever I heard of. That certainly was the face of our half-dead
bride! What, in the name ad all the gods, can it mean, I wonder?"
"I have given up wondering," said Sir Norman, in the same
helpless tone. "And if the earth was to open and swallow London
up, I should not be the least surprised. One thing is certain:
the lady we are seeking and that page are one and the same."
"And yet La Masque told you she was two miles from the city, in
the haunted ruin; and La Masque most assuredly knows."
"I have no doubt she is there. I shall not be the least
astonished if I find her in every street between this and
Newgate."
"Really, it is a most singular affair! First you see her in the
magic caldron; then we find her dead; then, when within an ace of
being buried, she comes to life; then we leave her lifeless as a
marble statue, shut up in your room, and fifteen minutes after,
she vanishes as mysteriously as a fairy in a nursery legend.
And, lastly, she turns up in the shape of a court-page, and
swaggers along London Bridge at this hour of the night, chanting
a love song. Faith! it would puzzle the sphinx herself to read
this riddle, I've a notion!"
"I, for one, shall never try to read it," said Sir Norman. "I am
about tired of this labyrinth of mysteries, and shall save time
and La Masque to unravel them at their leisure."
"Then you mean to give up the pursuit?"
"Not exactly. I love this mysterious beauty too well to do that;
and when next I find her, be it where it may, I shall take care
she does not slip so easily through my fingers."
"I cannot forget that page," said Ormiston, musingly. "It is
singular, since, he wears the Earl of Rochester's livery, that we
have never seen him before among his followers. Are you quite
sure, Sir Norman, that you have not?"
"Seen him? Don't be absurd, Ormiston! Do you think I could ever
forget such a face as that?"
"It would not be easy, I confess. One does not see such every
day. And yet - and yet - it is most extraordinary!"
"I shall ask Rochester about him the first thing to-morrow; and
unless he is an optical illusion - which I vow I half believe is
the case - I will come at the truth in spite of your demoniac
friend, La Masque!"
"Then you do not mean to look for him to-night?"
"Look for him? I might as well look for a needle in a haystack.
No! I have promised La Masque to visit the old ruins, and there
I shall go forthwith. Will you accompany me?"
"I think not. I have a word to say to La, Masque, and you and
she kept talking so busily, I had no chance to put it in."
Sir Norman laughed.
"Besides, I have no doubt it is a word you would not like to
utter in the presence of a third party, even though that third
party be your friend and Pythias, Kingsley. Do you mean to stay
here