Lord Chandos continued:
"She was speaking about you yesterday, and she was quite animated about you; she praised you more than I have ever heard her praise any one."
"I ought to feel flattered," said Leone; "but it strikes me as being something wonderful that Lady Lanswell did not find out any good qualities in me before."
"My mother saw you through a haze of hatred," said Lord Chandos; "now she will learn to appreciate you."
A sudden glow of fire flashed in those superb eyes.
"I wonder," she said, "if I shall ever be able to pay my debt to Lady Lanswell, and in what shape I shall pay it?"
He shuddered as he gazed in the beautiful face.
"Try to forget that, Leone," he said; "I never like to remember that you threatened my mother."
"We will not discuss it," she said, coldly; "we shall never agree."
Then the band began to play the quadrilles. Lord Chandos led Leone to her place. He thought to himself what cruel wrong it was on the part of fate, that the woman whom he had believed to be his wedded wife should be standing there, a visitor in the house which ought to have been her home.