“What theatre?” Zai asks quickly.
“The Bagatelle, to see ‘Hearts versus Diamonds.’ ”
“And ‘him!’ ” Zai thinks to herself, waxing white as a lily at such an ordeal with Lord Delaval’s mocking smile before her, and Lord Delaval’s cold, keen gaze watching her face.
“Who sent the box for to-night?” she asks, for she knows Lady Beranger never spends her money on such things.
“Lord Delaval.”
Zai colours again, and stoops down on pretence of picking up her pencil. She feels that Gabrielle is looking at her.
“That man has sent it on purpose to vex me,” she thinks. “I detest him.”
CHAPTER IV.
AT THE BAGATELLE THEATRE.
“Why did she love him? Curious fool, be still,
Is human love the growth of human will?”
When Lady Beranger and her party enter a large stage-box and settle themselves noiselessly in their seats, the first act of ‘Hearts versus Diamonds’ has begun, and the big bass is booming out a lugubrious overture to Ferdinand—the deserted lover’s reproaches to his faithless and diamond-worshipping Lady Yolande.