Prince Fortunatus

"There was something curiously uncanny -- something unearthly and phantasmal almost -- in the spectacle of these figures, the women in white, the men in black, moving through this wan light; and their voices sounded strangely in the dead silence; but ere long a soft saffron tinge began to show itself in the east; one or two scraps of cloud in the violet skies caught a faint touch of the coming dawn; there was a more generous tone on the masses of foliage, on the flower-beds, and on the grass; and now the cheerful chirping of the birds had begun among the leaves."

It is a brilliant company -- full of the brightest members of society -- in whose company the popular baritone Lionel Moore has finds himself, in this early morning. They have been planning a musical entertainment . . . yet there is more afoot that than. Those vivacious women And to be surrounded by the luxuriant surroundings of the wealthy

The young singer faces choices ahead -- perhaps with a few risks involved . . . and yet he carries a mystery with him, too -- about someone in his past named Nina . . .