Meanwhile, down below, a headless skeleton with one arm torn out of its socket had emerged from the fireplace, hit the floor and turned into a man in tails.

Monsieur Jacques's wife was already down on one knee in front of Margarita, and pale from excitement, she kissed Margarita's knee.

" Your Majesty..." murmured Monsieur Jacques's wife.

" Her Majesty is delighted! " cried Korovyov.

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" Your Majesty..." said the handsome Monsieur Jacques softly.

" We're delighted, " howled the cat

The young men, Azazello's companions, smiling lifeless, but polite smiles, guided Monsieur Jacques and his wife over to the side, to the goblets of champagne which the negroes were holding. Coming up the stairs at a run was a solitary man in tails.

" Count Robert, " whispered Korovyov to Margarita. " Intriguing as always. Note the humor, Your Majesty—the same case in reverse: he was a queen's lover and poisoned his wife."

" We are happy, Count, " cried the cat.

One after the other, three coffins tumbled out of the fireplace, splitting open and breaking apart on impact, then someone in a black cloak appeared, who was then stabbed in the back by the next to follow him out of the black maw. A muffled scream was heard below. Out of the fireplace ran an almost totally decomposed corpse. Margarita grimaced, and somebody's hand held a vial of smelling salts to her nose. It seemed to Margarita that the hand was Natasha's. The staircase began to nil up with people. Now on every step were men in tails, who all looked completely alike from a distance, and naked women who differed from each other only by their shoes and the color of the feathers on their heads.

Approaching Margarita and hobbling in a strange wooden boot on her left foot, came a lady whose eyes were cast down like a nun's. She was thin, humble-looking, and for some reason had a wide, green bandage around her neck.

" Who's the green one? " queried Margarita mechanically.

" A most charming and reputable lady, " whispered Korovyov. " May I present to you Signora Tofana. She was extremely popular among the charming young ladies of Naples as well as the female residents of Palermo, especially those who were sick of their husbands. It does happen, Your Majesty, that a woman gets sick of her hus—..."

" Yes, " was Margarita's hollow reply as she smiled at two men in tails, who bowed to her, one after the other, kissing her knee and her hand.

" And so, " said Korovyov, managing to whisper in Margarita's ear while also shouting to someone, " Duke! A glass of champagne! Delighted to see you!... And so, as I was saying, Signora Tofana sympathized with these poor women's predicament, and sold them vials of some kind of potion. The wife would pour it into her husband's soup, the husband would eat it, thank her for her tender attention, and feel marvelous. True, a few hours later the husband would develop a terrible thirst, then take to his bed, and the day after that the beautiful Neapolitan lady, who had fed her husband the soup, would be as free as the spring breeze."

" And what's that on her foot? " asked Margarita, continuing to greet the guests who had overtaken the hobbling Signora Tofana. " And why is that green thing on her neck? Is her neck withered? "

" Delighted to see you, Prince! " cried Korovyov, while whispering to

228 The Master and Margarí a

Margarita, " She has a splendid neck, but something unpleasant happened to her in prison. That's a Spanish boot on her foot, Your Majesty, and here's how she got the bandage: when the jailers found out that five hundred or so ill-chosen husbands had left Naples and Palermo permanently, they became enraged and strangled Signora Tofana in prison."

" How happy I am, Black Queen, for the great honor that has befallen me, " whispered Tofana in a nunlike voice, attempting to get down on her knee. The Spanish boot impeded her. Korovyov and Behemoth helped Tofana to get up.

" I'm glad to see you, " replied Margarita to Tofana, while extending her hand to others.

A steady stream of guests was now coming up the stairs. Margarita could no longer see what was going on in the foyer. She raised and low-ered her hand mechanically, and baring her teeth monotonously, smiled at the guests. The air on the landing hummed continuously, and the music coming from the ballrooms Margarita had left behind sounded like the sea. " Now that woman there is a bore, " said Korovyov not in a whisper but out loud, knowing that he could not be heard above the hum of voices. " She adores balls, yet all she can think of is to complain about her handkerchief."

Margarita scanned the crowd coming up the stairs and found the woman Korovyov was pointing to. She was a young woman of about twenty, with an unusually stunning figure, but with agitated and insistent eyes.

" What handkerchief? " asked Margarita.

" She has a chambermaid assigned to her, " explained Korovyov, " and every night for thirty years the maid has laid out a handkerchief for her on her night table. The minute she wakes up she sees it there. She's tried burning it in the stove and drowning it in the river, but nothing helps.

" What kind of handkerchief? " whispered Margarita, raising and lowering her hand.

" A handkerchief with a dark-blue border. The fact is that when she was a waitress in a cafe, her boss lured her into the storeroom one day, and nine months later she gave birth to a baby boy, carried him into the woods, stuffed the handkerchief in his mouth, and then buried him in the ground. At her trial she said she had nothing to feed the child."

" And where's the owner of the cafe? " asked Margarita.

" Your Majesty, " squeaked the cat suddenly from below. " Allow me to ask you: what does the owner have to do with this? He wasn't the one who smothered the baby in the woods! "

Margarita, continuing to smile and shake hands with her right hand, sank the sharp nails of her left hand into Behemoth's ear and whispered, " If you dare, you bastard, to butt into the conversation one more time..."

Behemoth let out a highly unceremonious squeal and rasped, " Your Majesty... my ear will swell up... Why spoil the ball for me with a swollen

Satan's Grand Ball 229

ear?... I was speaking legalistically... from the legal point... I'll be quiet, I'll be quiet.. Think of me not as a cat, but a fish, only leave my ear alone."