Beyond the Rocks

"Forgive me," she said, quite low, while she looked away. "I--of course

I ought to be pleased at anything which made you happy, but--oh, I hated

it!"

"Theodora," he said, "I ask you--do not act with me ever--to what end?

We know each other's hearts, and I hope it would pain you were I to

marry any other woman, as much as in like circumstances it would pain

me."

"Yes, it would pain me," she said, simply. "But, oh, we must not speak

thus! Please, please talk of the music, or the--the--oh, anything but

ourselves."

And he tried hard for the few moments which remained before the curtain

rose again. Tried hard, but it was all dust and ashes; and as he left

the box and returned to his own seat next door his heart felt like lead.

How would he be able to follow the rules he had laid down for himself

during his week of meditations in Paris alone?

"You see, dear Lady Bracondale," Morella Winmarleigh had been saying,

"Hector knows that woman with the pearls. He is sitting talking to her

now."

"Hector knows every one, Morella. Lend me your glasses, mine do not seem

to work to-night. Yes, I suppose by some she would be considered

pretty," Lady Bracondale continued, when the lorgnette was fixed to her

focus. "What do you think, dear?"

"Pretty!" exclaimed Miss Winmarleigh. "Oh no! Much too white, and,

oh--er--foreign-looking. We must find out who she is."

The matter was not difficult. Half the house had been interested in the

new-comer, the beautiful new-comer with the wonderful pearls, who must

be worth while in some way, or she would not be under the wing of

Florence Devlyn.

By the time Hector again entered their box in the last act, Miss

Winmarleigh had obtained all the information she wanted from one of the

many visitors who came to pay their court to the heiress. And the

information reassured her. Only the wife of a colonial millionaire; no

one of her world or who could trouble her.

Early next morning, while she sat in her white flannel dressing-gown,

her hair screwed in curling-pins, after the Brantinghams' ball, she

wrote in her journal the customary summary of her day, and ended with:

"H.B. returned--same as usual, running after a new woman, nobody of

importance; but I had better watch it, and clinch matters between him

and me before Goodwood. Ordered the pink silk after all, from the new

little dressmaker, and beat her down three pounds as to price. Begun

Marvaloso hair tonic."