Why had she come out with this buffoon, she wondered?
Why had she come to the masquerade at all?
She was utterly out of sympathy with its festive gaiety.

A great and overmastering desire for solitude descended upon her.

She turned almost angrily to go.
But in the same instant the jester's hand caught her own.
"Even so, lady," he said.

"But the magic of fools has led to paradise before now." She laughed out bitterly: "A fool's paradise!" "Is ever green," he said whimsically.

"Faith, it's no place at all for cynics.