I further imagine that Theodore now began to
be sensible of something more serious in his enterprise than he had
been quite aware of while he sat with his boon-companions over their
sparkling wine.
Very strange, it must be confessed, was the movement with which the
figure floated to and fro over the carpet, with the silvery veil
covering her from head to foot; so impalpable, so ethereal, so
without substance, as the texture seemed, yet hiding her every
outline in an impenetrability like that of midnight. Surely, she did
not walk! She floated, and flitted, and hovered about the room; no
sound of a footstep, no perceptible motion of a limb; it was as if a
wandering breeze wafted her before it, at its own wild and gentle
pleasure. But, by and by, a purpose began to be discernible,
throughout the seeming vagueness of her unrest. She was in quest of
something. Could it be that a subtile presentiment had informed her
of the young man's presence? And if so, did the Veiled Lady seek or
did she shun him? The doubt in Theodore's mind was speedily resolved;
for, after a moment or two of these erratic flutterings, she
advanced more decidedly, and stood motionless before the screen.
"Thou art here!" said a soft, low voice. "Come forth, Theodore!"
Thus summoned by his name, Theodore, as a man of courage, had no
choice. He emerged from his concealment, and presented himself
before the Veiled Lady, with the wine-flush, it may be, quite gone
out of his cheeks.
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