Anyway, I shall tell you that my name's Rox..."

"Shhh!" "Dracula" laid a black-globod finger upon her lips. "It is better that we don't exchange names. You and I have come from different planes and our pathes will never cross again. Because this is All Hallow's Eve, we are allowed to mingle, saint and sinner, and to befriend one another, but after tonight this may not be."

There was something so earnest in the whisper in which this melodramatic speech was delivered that Roxanne could not find it in her heart to laugh.

"All right, Mr. Mystery Man. Have it your own way. But I'll find out at the unmasking at twelve o'clock!"

"The unmasking!" "Dracula" exclaimed. "I had forgotten!

What time is it?"

"Be calm, we have ten minutes yet." Roxanne glanced at her watch.

The band struck up another tune. Willie Thomas' voico crooned into the microphone one of the latest love songs:

"There's just once place for me...near you..."

11

"Dracula" dexterously guided Roxanne from the dance floor onto a secluded terrace. "Soon I will have to leave you, the mysterious voice whispered. "Thank you for being such a charming partner."

"You mean you're leaving now, and before the unmasking and costume prizes?" Roxanne asked incredulously.

"I must, my dear."

"My dear..." How beautiful those words sounded, so different, so infinitely more tender, somehow, from the way Jack said them.

"Aren't you really going to let me know who you are?"

"I mayn't."

27