Not a muscle moved in the beautiful face before him. He could only see it in profile, for Marguerite seemed to be watching the stage intently, but Chauvelin was a keen observer; he noticed the sudden rigidity of the eyes, the hardening of the mouth, the sharp, almost paralysed tension of the beautiful, graceful figure.
“Lud, then,” she said, with affected merriment, “since ’tis one of your imaginary plots, you’d best go back to your own seat and leave me to enjoy the music.”
And with her hand she began to beat time nervously against the cushion of the box. Selina Storace was singing the “Che farò” to an audience that hung spellbound upon the prima donna’s lips. Chauvelin did not move from his seat; he quietly watched that tiny nervous hand, the only indication that his shaft had indeed struck home.
“Well?” she said suddenly and irrelevantly, and with the same feigned unconcern.
“Well, citoyenne?” he rejoined placidly.
“About my brother?”
“I have news of him for you which, I think, will interest you, but first let me explain. . . . May I?”
The question was unnecessary. He felt, though Marguerite still held her head steadily averted from him, that her every nerve was strained to hear what he had to say.
“The other day, citoyenne,” he said, “I asked for your help. . . . France needed it, and I thought I could rely on you, but you gave me your answer. . . . Since then the exigencies of my own affairs and your own social duties have kept us apart . . . although many things have happened. . . .”
“To the point, I pray you, citoyen,” she said lightly; “the music is entrancing, and the audience will get impatient of your talk.”