"The earl among the actors?" cried Idris in surprise.
"The play, as an experiment, would be a failure without him," returned Beatrice, oracularly. "To persuade him to take part in it was a matter requiring very delicate handling on the part of Lorelie and myself. But we have gained our end, you see."
At this juncture there arose the twanging of violin-strings, the puffing of wind instruments, and other sounds preliminary to orchestral music. Then in a moment more the overture had begun.
Idris, having drawn a velvet lounge to a point convenient for obtaining a clearer view of the stage, seated Beatrice beside himself. They were almost screened from sight by the arrangement of the silken curtains, and by a profusion of flowers and fernery that decorated the exterior ledge of the balcony.
The overture was a really brilliant piece, but Beatrice appeared to give little heed to it.
"There was once," she murmured, in a dreamy voice, "there was once a son, who at the age of seven years promised his mother on oath that when he became a man he would do his utmost to clear his father's name from a false charge. The son attained manhood; the opportunity came for proving his father's innocence, and what did the son do? Nothing! Absolutely nothing!"
"Would you have me darken Lorelie's name?" asked Idris, with a slight touch of anger in his voice.
But without heeding this interruption Beatrice went on:—
"And therefore, as you have failed in your duty, Lorelie herself will perform the act of justice to the dead. At this very hour two leading newspapers—the one in Paris, the other in London—are setting up the type of an article entitled 'The story of an almost forgotten tragedy,' an article that will bear the signature of Lorelie Rochefort. To-morrow morning the world will learn that Eric Marville was innocent of the crime laid to his charge. And to-night, here, in this very hall, Lorelie hopes to prove who Eric Marville really was: and her experiment, if it terminate as she expects, will depress her fortune in just the same proportion as it will raise yours.