"Then that shows me you have been speaking untruths. Mr. Brendon does not love you----"
"But I say yes--yes--yes!" Lola sprang to her feet again and poured forth her wrath. "Ah, you think he will be milord and that you will marry him, but----"
"What do you know about that?" asked Dorothy, rising indignantly.
"Oh, I do know much--much," Lola snapped her fingers. "Yes, I know that which I do know. I can stop him from being milord, and that I will--I will. If he is milord he will marry--you--you. But as my own George he will make me--me--" she struck her breast again--"me, Lola Velez, madame his wife."
"You are talking nonsense," said Dorothy, coolly, though she felt annoyed and puzzled. "What can you know?"
"That which I do know. Wait--oh, wait a day--one day, two day, three day, and then--" She snapped her fingers. "You see--yes--you see how clever I am. I go, I go, you white cat. I go to get my George."
Lola darted away at a run, which slackened to a rapid walk as she neared the Park gates. Dorothy sat down again, too amazed to follow.
CHAPTER XIV
[MRS. WARD'S TRUMP CARD]
Kowlaski was a large, fat, good-natured blackguard of a man, quite without principle. He came from some remote village in the Balkans and was of Jewish birth. In his early days he arrived in London penniless and strove to make a living by selling toys in the street. Then he turned scene-shifter at a music-hall, and while thus engaged educated himself to write and read and to speak English with wonderful fluency. Also he saved money and speculated in a small way, having the marvelous Hebrew instinct of picking out lucrative ventures. Shortly he became stage manager. Then he found a clever woman who sang badly and acted wonderfully. Kowlaski advertised her into a success and she proved grateful. There is no need to trace his steady rise; but one thing led to another until he became proprietor of the very music-hall which had witnessed his humble beginning.