Why did she linger? At last the girl returned.
"What did he say, Nora?" she asked, breathlessly, fixing her startled eyes eagerly on the girl's face.
"He made no reply, ma'am," returned Nora; "but I am sure he will go, since you so earnestly requested it."
[CHAPTER LVI.]
It was with the greatest surprise that Eugene Mallard received the message that Nora delivered—that Ida was too ill to attend the grand ball with him.
"She did not seem to be ill this afternoon," he said to himself.
Obeying a sudden impulse, he hurried from the room, intent upon going to Ida's boudoir and offering her his sympathy; but, on second thought, he concluded that in all probability she would not care to be disturbed.
He felt grievously disappointed. He knew that many of his friends would be present; and besides, what could he say to Mrs. Staples and her daughters?
Some of her friends had left Ida apparently in the best of health and spirits at noon. How could he account to them for her sudden indisposition?