The woman knelt at her feet, folding her hands to her lips rapturously, and back on her feet in an instant, calm-faced.
“See how small the sea and world are,” she said. “I do not work here. I am an extra for to-night, and I find a face that has looked on Averna. I know Tittani well—”
A rap came at the door and Ames’s voice, calling to her to hurry. Carlota sighed, drawn back from the old days.
“Lay out the peasant dress, please, and don’t forget the scarf for the head. It is hand-embroidered on old linen in red and yellow.”
Before the operetta she ventured to steal out of a small balcony from the upper corridor, overlooking the inner court below. Although it was still early, they were dancing in one of the smaller rooms. She saw Ames enter with others, and recognized Nathalie even in her domino. All of the débutantes who were to sing wore them. And was it not as Dmitri warned her? He was a success with these people, she thought, wistfully. He was to reap a triumph to-night, and she had been foolish enough to risk her whole career for his, to jeopardize her future merely to make his operetta a success.
The woman from Averna had struck a chord of memory that unnerved her. She felt the lonely sorrow of Fiametta, the princess in disguise, seeking her love at the festa, and finding him only as the dancing Harlequin.
Ames sought her once more before the overture. The maid had thrown a black silk domino around her when she was ready to go down to the improvised stage, and she drew the hood closely over her head, concealing the tiara.
“All right?” he whispered confidently. “Keep your nerve, dear. It all depends on you, after all. Fiametta carries the action and sympathy.”
She smiled back into his eyes in silence, compliant to his wishes, eager for his success. Nathalie pressed past them with several other girls, and laid her hand on his arm.
“We’re looking everywhere for you, Griff!” she cried. “Mamma’s so afraid you might forget the supper-dance afterwards. It’s only for a few, and we want you to stay. Will you, just for me?”