"It is nothing—pshaw! Do not let your mind be upset, madame. Be glad that the fair-faced lad lives. Your conscience is that much lighter, and for the rest, he was never worthy the passion of so magnificent a woman!"
"He was the only man I ever loved!" madame cried, obstinately. "He was splendid, whatever you say, Mima, and to think that she, the Little Nobody, has come back from the very grave to part us, to win him from me! Oh, it is bitter! I will not endure it. He was mad to fling that defiance in my face. I will make him pay dearly, dearly for that insolence!"
"Nonsense! You shall not get yourself into any more scrapes over that boy!" Mima cried, angrily.
Mme. Lorraine laughed hysterically.
"You shall see," she said. "I will come between them; I will part them. I swear it!"
"Nonsense!" Mima said again. "You do not even know where they live."
"I shall find out!" the actress cried, obstinately; and then she gave vent to a sudden cry of shrill delight.
"Oh! oh!"
"What is it, then?" curtly.
"Fortune favors me. You know I am invited to a little petit souper to-night after the theater. It is at the house of one of the Boston bon ton, and the name on the card is 'Mrs. Bryant Van Zandt.'"