, the
aristocrat of pure and ancient lineage, the woman who had played
barefoot in the gutter as a child, and won her way with her exquisite
talent to fame and fortune.

There was between them, at the start, the antagonism of class. But
there was also between them a still more subtle antagonism, recognised
by each: they had a mutual tenderness for the same man.

CHAPTER XIV

It was exceedingly difficult for a person of Nada's frank and open
temperament to resort to the arts of the dissembler, to feign a
cordiality she did not feel. Still, she managed to pull herself
together and, to a creditable extent, conceal her dislike of her
unwelcome visitor. With a grave courtesy she invited the Spanish woman
to seat herself.

"Your note has distressed me, Madame, for more than one reason. In the
first place I am very sorry to hear that Signor Corsini is menaced by
a great danger. I met him in London; ours was the first private house
he played at after his great success at the Covent Garden concert. I
have a great esteem for him as an artist, and I am shocked to think
that, after so short a stay in my own country, he should be the victim
of some sinister designs. Secondly, I am the more disturbed because
your letter tells me very plainly in what quarter these designs are
being entertained."

Madame Quero spoke very quietly. The Princess disliked her, of that
she was assured, and she returned the dislike with compound interest.
Still Nada was doing her best to be civil and polite. It should not be
her fault if the interview was not conducted with perfect discretion
on both sides.

"If the danger had not been very great and also very imminent,
Princess, I should not have taken the liberty of intruding myself upon
you. We move in different worlds, it is true, but I am some sort of a
personage in my own sphere and not fond of exposing myself to rebuffs
at the hand of a waiting-maid."

Nada blushed at the shrewd, quick thrust, although the words were
spoken without the least heat.

"I am very sorry you should have felt offended," she faltered. "But
of course, I could not deliver the message myself."

Madame Quero dismissed the subject with a graceful wave of the
hand. If Nada had the composure of the aristocrat, she had the
self-possession of the woman of the world. She could skate over thin
ice as delicately as anybody.

"I have every reason to know that your brother, Prince Boris, has
taken a violent enmity to