"Am I mad," she asks herself, with terrible calm despair, "or is it really Leslie Noble?"
Her lover unconsciously answers the silent question.
"You see that dark, handsome man, Vera?" he says. "His name is Leslie Noble. He is the husband of the lady in the diamonds."
She makes him no answer at first. Her eyes are wide and dark with horror. All in a moment she sees plainly the awful answer to the question so often asked of her shuddering heart.
"Vera, indeed you are ill. Let me take you away from the heavy scent of these flowers," her lover pleads.
She starts like one waking from a dreadful dream, and clings to his arm.
"Yes, take me away," she echoes, in a far-off voice. "There are too many flowers here, and the light hurts my eyes, and the music my heart."