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Page 17
"They seem to be more together to-night than is even usual with them,"
goes on Arthur blandly. "Before you honored the room with your presence,
he had danced twice with her, and now again. It is very marked, his
attention to-night."
As a matter of fact Adrian had not danced with Mrs. Talbot all the
evening until now, but Florence, not having been present at the opening
of the ball, is not in a position to refute this, as he well knows.
"If there were anything in her friendship with Sir Adrian, I feel sure
Dora would tell me of it," she says slowly, and with difficulty.
"And she hasn't?" asks Arthur, with so much surprise and incredulity in
his manner as goes far to convince her that there is some truth in his
statement. "Well, well," he adds, "one can not blame her. She would
doubtless be sure of his affection before speaking even to her dearest
friend."
Florence winces, and sinks back upon the seat as though unable to
sustain an upright position any longer. Every word of his is as gall
and wormwood to her, each sentence a reminder--a reproach. Only the
other day this man now beside her had accused her of making sure of Sir
Adrian's affection before she had any right so to do. Her proud spirit
shrinks beneath the cruel taunt he hurls at her.
"You look unusually 'done up,'" he goes on, in a tone of assumed
commiseration. "This evening has been too much for you. Acting a part
at any time is extremely trying and laborious."
She shrinks still further from him. Acting a part! Is not all her life
becoming one dreary drama, in which she acts a part from morning until
night? Is there to be no rest for her? Oh, to escape from this man at
any price! She rises to her feet.
"Our dance is almost at an end," she says; "and the heat is terrible.
I can remain here no longer."
"You are ill," he exclaims eagerly, going to her side. He would have
supported her, but by a gesture she repels him.
"If I am, it is you who have made me so," she retorts, with quick
passion, for which she despises herself an instant later.
"Nay, not I," he rejoins, "but what my words have unconsciously conveyed
to you. Do not blame me. I thought you, as well as every one else here,
knew of Adrian's sentiments with regard to Mrs. Talbot."
This is too much for her. Drawing herself up to her full height,
Florence casts a glance of anger and defiance in his direction, and,
sweeping past him in her most imperious fashion, appears no more that
night.
It is an early party, all things considered, and Dora Talbot, going to
her room about two o'clock, stops before Florence's door and knocks
softly thereon.
"Come in," calls Florence gently.
"I have just stopped for a moment to express the hope that you are not
ill, dearest," says smooth-tongued Dora, advancing toward her. "How
early you left us! I shouldn't have known how early only that Mr.
Dynecourt told me. Are you sure you are not ill?"
"Not in the least, only a little fatigued," replied Florence calmly.
"Ah, no wonder, with your exertions before the dancing commenced, and
your unqualified success! You reigned over everybody, darling. Nobody
could hope even to divide the honors of the evening with you. Your
acting was simply superb."
"Thank you," says Florence, who is not in bed, but is sitting in a chair
drawn near the window, through which the moonbeams are flinging their
pale rays. She is clad in a clinging white dressing-gown that makes her
beauty saint-like, and has all her long hair falling loosely round her
shoulders.
"What a charming evening it has been!" exclaims Dora ecstatically,
clasping her hands, and leaning her arms on the back of a chair. "I
hardly know when I have felt so thoroughly happy." Florence shudders
visibly. "You enjoyed yourself, of course?" continues Dora. "Everyone
raved about you. You made at least a dozen conquests; one or half a
one--" with a careful hesitation in her manner intended to impress her
listener--"is as much as poor little insignificant me can expect."
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