CHAPTER XXX.
THE UNMASKING At midnight a mellow chime rang somewhere by the cypress pool.
Laughing and jesting, calling to one another, the masked crowd moved off to the vine-hung villa ahead, gleaming moon-white through the shrubbery.
Somewhat reluctantly the minstrel followed.

It had been his intention to unmask in some secluded corner whence, presently, he might slip away to his room, but finding himself jostled and pushed on by a Greek and a Bedouin who, to do them justice, seemed quite unaware of their importunities, he surrendered to the press about him and presently found himself in an unpleasantly conspicuous spot in the great room which the Sherrills occasionally used as a ballroom.
All about him girls and men were unmasking amid a shower of laughing raillery.

That the Seminole chief with her tunic and beaded sash and her brilliant turban was very near him, was a pleasant and altogether accidental mitigation of his mishap.

That a Greek and a Bedouin were just behind him--a fact not in the least accidental--and that a gray monk was slipping about among the guests whispering to receptive ears, did not interest him in the least.

A string orchestra played softly in an alcove.