"That I couldn't say, ma'am," he replied. "I only came to Gray Gables to-day, to work. I know only the little that I have heard the servants say while at their work this afternoon. They say Miss Dorothy is very beautiful."
Chapter XXI.
The white face into which the man gazed grew whiter still, the eyes dilated, and her heart twinged with a pang of jealousy more bitter than death to endure.
People always made that remark when speaking of Dorothy. It was that fatal gift which had won her lover from her, Nadine said to herself, and which had wrecked her life.
Oh! if she could but destroy that pink-and-white beauty!
The thought was born in Nadine Holt's breast all in an instant, and seemed to fire her whole being.
She knew her lover's passionate adoration of a beautiful face, and then and there the thought came to her: How long would he love Dorothy Glenn if that pretty pink-and-white face were seamed and scarred?
She laughed—a low, strange, eerie laugh that quite startled the man as he walked away.
Left to herself, Nadine Holt deliberately opened the hall door and stole into the house. She had but one purpose in view, and that was to confront her lover and Dorothy before all the invited guests.
There was nothing about the dark figure to attract especial attention, and she glided through the corridor unnoticed.