Lady Chetwold felt Adrien give a slight start, and looking up, she saw that his lips had grown stern, and even through the mask detected the angry gleam in his eyes.

“Do you know her?” she whispered.

“Yes!” he said.  “But it would be a breach of confidence to betray her, Lady Chetwold.”

At the close of the dance he surrendered the little lady her next partner, and went in search of the Cleopatra.  He soon espied her, seated in one of the recesses, and strode across to her.  She started to her feet as Adrien approached, then sinking back into her chair, she looked up at him defiantly.

At that moment the band struck up the music for the cotillion, and the mass of colours shifted in dazzling movement, as, amid the rustle of silks and the ripple of laughter, the dance commenced.

Adrien was engaged to Lady Constance for it; but in the height of his anger he had forgotten the fact.

“Ada!” he exclaimed in a low voice full of suppressed indignation.  “What is the meaning of this intrusion?  You’ve no business here.”

“No business here!  Oh, haven’t I?” she answered harshly, her bosom heaving, and her bejewelled hands clenching.

“No,” he continued, standing in front of her so that she should not be seen by the dancers.  “You know that as well as I do.  How did you come?”

“On my legs,” retorted the lady defiantly.  “They’re good for something else besides dancing in your theatre, Adrien.  You’re an unfeeling brute to speak to me like that after the way you’ve treated me.  Do you think I’m going to be thrown aside like a worn-out glove, just because you want to marry that grand swell of a cousin.”

“Silence!” said Adrien in a tense whisper, and grasping her arm almost savagely.  “Keep your mask on, and come with me.  If you are discovered, I will not answer for the consequences.”

She rose sullenly, but abashed by his unusual vehemence, for never yet had she seen him moved from his polite calm; and opening the door at the end of the room, he led her away from the brilliant ball-room.

“Now,” he said as he closed the door and removed the mask from his face, “what does this mean?  There is something more in your presence than I can understand.  Whether I marry or not, it can be nothing to you, Ada; you have the money, which is all you care for.”

“No, I haven’t,” she retorted loudly, “and you know it!”

He held up his hand with a gesture of contemptuous command.

“Speak quietly, if you can,” he said, “or I leave you at once.  Do you mean to tell me you have not received the deeds?”

“I do,” she replied sulkily.  “It ain’t no use your carrying it off in this high-handed way, because I ain’t going to be deceived by it!  You promised me that you’d make me an allowance of a thousand a year, and give me the theatre when you left me.  Well, you’ve left me right enough, but where’s the money?  That’s what I want to know.”