Lord Clive, when he could spare a glance from Azalia or the diva, looked at the handsome trio in the opposite box, and presently he said:
"Miss Fielding is not as handsome as she was in Boston. She seems almost to have grown thinner, and her eyes, though bright, have a worn, haggard look, and her expression is strange and hard. Do you observe it, Azalia?"
Azalia was obliged to answer in the affirmative. No one could deny the change that terror and unrestrained jealousy and passion had worn in distinctive lines on Jewel's beautiful lineaments. It was too plain to deny. She looked years older and graver than a few weeks ago.
Azalia had grown more grave and sad, too; but she tried to hide it from her relatives and her lover. Not for worlds would she have had them know that she was restless and unhappy, almost beyond all bearing, since her constrained parting with Laurie Meredith.
She could not help feeling gratified when she saw the lines of pain and unrest on the features of her cruel half-sister.
"She has won him from me; but she is not happy," was her conclusion. "I wonder where he is to-night. I should like to see him again. False and fickle as I know him to be, the old fascination steals over me when I look at his beautiful, regular profile, his clear, brown eyes, and the soft waves of hair that I used to thread with loving fingers. Of course he came with them to Washington, and I suppose the reason of Jewel's angry looks is because for some reason he could not, or would not, come to the opera with her to-night. She is a tyrant, and will rule him with a rod of iron, that half-sister of mine! Well, I do not pity him. He may learn in time to regret me, and that will be my vengeance for his cruelty!"
She sighed bitterly; and Lord Clive, who had been looking into the opposite box, started, and turned back to look at her.
"I beg your pardon for my inattention, dearest," he murmured, tenderly.
Azalia threw off her depression, and answered, gayly:
"I shall be quite jealous of Miss Fielding if you continue to gaze at her with such admiring eyes."