“My lover did not speak one word to me until the music struck up again, and the attention of the people around us was attracted in other directions.
“‘Will you oblige me by withdrawing from the company?’ he asked then.
“I arose at once and took his arm.
“‘Oh, Roy, what have I done?’ I exclaimed, in deep distress at his coldness, my heart thrilling with a terrible pain.
“‘You have disgraced yourself and me—the Count de Lussan is the lowest blackleg in London.’
“I lifted my eyes and searched my lover’s face after those, to me, words of doom. It was as inflexible as marble, not a gleam of love, kindness, or forgiveness. He was like a stern judge pronouncing sentence upon me, and the thought burst like lightning upon me, searing my very soul.
“I had lost him forever! and throwing out my hands toward him, I sank with a low moan of agony at his feet before he could even put forth an arm to save me.”
CHAPTER IV
THE LEGACY OF JEWELS
“In falling my head struck against the base of a pillar, cutting a severe gash in my forehead, which, with the blow, nearly cost me my life—there is the scar now, dear.”
The old lady lifted the silvery hair from her forehead, revealing a white seam about an inch in length.