She broke off abruptly and with a groan, dropped her face upon her folded arms, on the table at which they had been sitting.
"Perhaps so," Mildred said in gently compassionate tones; "I could almost wish for your sake that I were older."
Miss Worth lifted her head, and with almost startling suddenness, and a feverish eagerness in her tones, asked, "Miss Mildred, where is Miss Juliet Marsden to-day?"
"She has passed the greater part of it in bed, I believe," Mildred answered in utter surprise.
"Has—has her lover been here since—since he left her last night?"
"The Count? No."
"Can you tell me if she is to go out to-night? and where? and who is to be her escort? Ah, I see you are wondering at my curiosity and it is only natural that you should; but believe me, it is not the idle inquisitiveness it must seem to you," she went on rapidly and in anguished accents; "for I have a reason; there is much at stake—I—I have tried to be indifferent—to say to myself that it is nothing to me if—if that vain, silly girl should meet with the fate her folly deserves; but I cannot; I must try to save her—and him. Oh, if I could but save him."
And again she hid her face, while sobs shook her from head to foot.
"Him!" Mildred cried in increased amazement, "what is he to you? No, no, I do not ask that. I have no wish to pry into your secrets."