"Now or never," he whispered to himself, and snatched at the
mask.
His arm was again thrust aside; but this time the woman raised
her disengaged hand at the same moment, and removed the yellow
mask.
The lamps shed their soft light full on her face.
It was the face of his dead wife.
CHAPTER IV.
Signor Andrea D'Arbino, searching vainly through the various
rooms in the palace for Count Fabio d'Ascoli, and trying as a
last resource, the corridor leading to the ballroom and grand
staircase, discovered his friend lying on the floor in a swoon,
without any living creature near him. Determining to avoid
alarming the guests, if possible, D'Arbino first sought help in
the antechamber. He found there the marquis's valet, assisting
the Cavaliere Finello (who was just taking his departure) to put
on his cloak.
While Finello and his friend carried Fabio to an open window in
the antechamber, the valet procured some iced water. This simple
remedy, and the change of atmosphere, proved enough to restore
the fainting man to his senses, but hardly--as it seemed to his
friends--to his former self. They noticed a change to blankness
and stillness in his face, and when he spoke, an indescribable
alteration in the tone of his voice.
"I found you in a room in the corridor," said D'Arbino. "What
made you faint? Don't you remember? Was it the heat?"
Fabio waited for a moment, painfully collecting his ideas.
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