"And so you opened it, monsieur." Faintly she smiled, with downcast lashes.
"And I came as you first came to me—in mantle and veil."
For a moment their thoughts fled back to that masquerade, which seemed so long ago.
"But it is too late," she said tremulously.
"Is it too late—for me to help you?"
At that her eyes rose to his again in a swift flash of hunted fear.
"Oh, take me away from him!" she breathed suddenly, unpremeditately. "Somehow—somewhere—"
Another figure came towards them. Madame De Coulevain in all her severe elegance of black.
"Come and join your friends at the supper, my dear; there is no need for you to be pilloried here any longer," she observed with an indifferent scrutiny of the persistent veiled woman, and Ryder moved slowly away while Aimée came dutifully down from the throne, a huge black bending to hold her train.
"I thought you were never coming! What were you talking about?" demanded a voice in Ryder's ear, and he found Jinny Jeffries at his side, her bright gray eyes pouncing upon him with curiosity.