Everybody was en masque and almost everyone wore fancy dress and some
of the costumes were beautiful. The most striking figure in the rooms,
perhaps, was Lieutenant Alden, who represented Death! He is very tall
and very slender, and he had on a skintight suit of dark-brown
drilling, painted from crown to toe with thick white paint to
represent the skeleton of a human being; even the mask that covered
the entire head was perfect as a skull. The illusion was a great
success, but it made one shiver to see the awful thing walking about,
the grinning skull towering over the heads of the tallest. And ever at
its side was a red devil, also tall, and so thin one wondered what
held the bones together. This red thing had a long tail. The devil was
Lieutenant Perkins, of course.
Faye and Doctor Dent were dressed precisely alike, as sailors, the
doctor even wearing a pair of Faye's shoes. They had been very sly
about the twin arrangement, which was really splendid, for they are
just about the same size and have hair very much the same color. But
smart as they were, I recognized Faye at once. The idea of anyone
thinking I would not know him!
We had queens and milkmaids and flower girls galore, and black starry
nights and silvery days, and all sorts of things, many of them very
elegant. My old yellow silk, the two black lace flounces you gave me,
and a real Spanish mantilla that Mrs.
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