You must believe me: I would not have frightened you for anything in the world." "Why are you wearing that dress ?" He laughed, and pointed to where, behind him on the ground, lay a long gray cloak, upon which had been tossed a white mask.

"I'm on my way to the masquerade;" he answered, with an airy gesture in the direction of the violins.

"I'm an Incroyable, you see; and I had the costume made from my recollection of a sketch of your great-uncle.

I saw it a long time ago in your library." Miss Carewe's accustomed poise was quite recovered; indeed, she was astonished to discover a distinct trace of disappointment that the brilliant apparition must offer so tame an explanation.

What he said was palpably the truth; there was a masquerade that night, she knew, at the Madrillon's, a little way up Carewe Street, and her father had gone, an hour earlier, a blue domino over his arm.
The Incroyable was a person of almost magical perceptiveness; he felt the let-down immediately and feared a failure.