"There are plenty of chairs," Maud insisted, stridently; she had followed the juggler into the lamplight round the table.
"I'm quite sure there's no room for you," said Sylvia, sharply; and, taking advantage of Queenie's complete limpness, she dragged her away by the wrist and explained quickly to the manager, who was walking up and down by the entrance gate, that Queenie was ill and must go home at once.
"Ill!" he exclaimed, skeptically. "Well, I shall have to fine you both your evening's salary. Why, it's only half past eleven!"
Sylvia did not wait to argue with him, but hurried Queenie to a carriage, in which they drove back immediately to their hotel.
"I said to you that it was going to bring me bad luck when you said to that priest my real name. Ach! what shall I be doing? What shall I be doing now?" Queenie wailed.
"You must pay no attention to him," Sylvia told her; but she found that Queenie did not recover herself as she usually did at the tone of command. "What can he do to you while you're with me?" she continued.
"You don't know him," Queenie moaned. "He's very strong. Look at the mark on my leg where he was shooting me. Ach, if we could be going to England, but we cannot. We are here and he is here. You are not strong like he was, Sylvia."
"If you're going to give way like this before he has touched you and frighten yourself to death in advance, of course he'll do what he likes, because I can do nothing without support from you. But if you'll try to be a little bit brave and remember that I can protect you, everything will be all right and we'll get away from Rumania at the first opportunity."
"Ach, you have papers. You are English. Nobody will protect me. Any one was being able to do what they was liking to do with me."
Sylvia tried to argue courage into her until early morning; but Queenie adopted an attitude of despair, and it was impossible to convince her that Zozo could not at whatever moment he chose take her away, and, if he wished, murder her without any one's interfering or being able to interfere. In the end Sylvia fell asleep exhausted, resolving that if Queenie was not in a more courageous frame of mind next day she should not move from the hotel. When Sylvia woke up she found that Queenie was already dressed to go out, and for an instant she feared that the juggler's power over her was strong enough to will her to go back to him by the mere sense of his being near at hand. She asked her almost angrily why she had dressed herself so quietly and where she was going.