"Yes, there are always sparrows." "And sometimes bigger things," he said, "things one wouldn't miss for half creation." "Or lose again for the other half," said the cool voice of a skater who had just glided up.
Anne started a little, but Lucas scarcely moved.
"Lady Carfax is waiting to go on the ice," he said.
"And I am waiting to take her," the new-comer said.
His slim, graceful figure in its black, tight-fitting garb sparkled at every turn.

His eyes shone through his velvet mask like the eyes of an animal in the dark.
He glided nearer, but for some reason inexplicable to herself, Anne stepped back.
"I don't think I will," she said.

"I am quite happy where I am." "You will be happier with me," said the harlequin, with imperial confidence.
He waved his hand to Hudson standing a few paces away with her skates, took them from him, motioned her to the bank.
She stepped forward, not very willingly.

Hudson, at another sign, spread a rug for her.

She sat down, and the glittering harlequin kneeled upon the ice before her and fastened the blades to her feet.
It only took a couple of minutes; he was deft in all his ways.