Page:Strange Tales Volume 02 Number 03 (1932-10).djvu/87

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I wanted to turn my head, but could not.

Bal Macabre

By Gustav Meyrink

Author of "The Golem," etc.

Translated from the German by Udo Rall

Lord Hopeless had invited me to join the party at his table, and introduced me to the gentlemen.

It was long after midnight, and I have forgotten most of the names.

Doctor Zitterbein I had already met before.

"You always sit by yourself. That is too bad," he had said while he shook my hand. "Why do you always sit by yourself?"

". . . All at once a strange-looking acrobat was at our table. . . ."

I know that we had not drunk very much. Nevertheless we were under the spell of that delicate, barely noticeable intoxication which makes some words seem to come from far off, a condition

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