it would end, while she yet felt that she had no
right to inflict pain on Alexander by suddenly forcing him to change his
tone. Her mind was very much confused, and as she could not imagine that
a real and undivided love admitted of any confusion, she had simply
asked Paul to wait, in perfect good faith, meaning that she needed time
to decide and to settle the matter in her own conscience. He had pressed
her with questions, and had finally extorted the confession that
another man had come between them. She had not meant to say that, but
she was too honest to deny the charge. Paul had instantly taken it for
granted that she already loved this other man better than himself, and
had treated her as though everything were over between them.

The poor girl was in great trouble when she went home that night.
Although nothing had been openly discussed, she knew that her engagement
to Paul was tacitly acknowledged. She asked herself how he would treat
her when they met; whether they should meet at all, indeed, for she
feared that he would refuse to come to the house altogether. She
wondered what questions her father would put to her, and how Madame
Patoff would take the matter. More than all, she hesitated in deciding
whether she had done well in speaking as she had spoken, seeing what the
first results had been.

She shut herself in her room, and just as she was, in the beautiful
Eastern dress which she was to have shown at the ball when the masking
was over, she sat down upon a chair in the corner, and leaned her tired
head against the wall. But for the disastrous ending of the evening, she
would doubtless have sat before her glass, and looked with innocent
satisfaction at her own beautiful face. But the dark corner suited her
better, in her present mood. Her cheek rested against the wall, and very
soon the silent tears welled over and trickled down, staining the green
wall paper of the hotel bedroom, as they slowly reached the floor and
soaked into the dusty carpet. She was very miserable and very tired,
poor child, and perhaps she would have fallen asleep at last, just as
she sat, had she not been roused by sounds which reached her from the
next room, and which finally attracted her attention. Madame Patoff
slept there, or should have been sleeping at that hour, for she was
evidently awake. She seemed to be walking up and down, up and down
eternally, between the window and the door. As she walked, she spoke
aloud from time