but she must expect to be recognised, perhaps to be
stared at. Well, and would it be so very disagreeable? An hour before,
the mirror had persuaded her that she need not shrink from people's
eyes; her dress defied criticism, and she had not to learn how to bear
herself with dignity. Sibyl was unusually lavish of compliments, and in
a matter such as this Sibyl's judgment had weight. As soon as she found
herself on the stairs, amid perfumes and brilliances, she breathed
freely; it was the old familiar atmosphere; her heart leaped with a
sudden joy, as in a paradise regained.

Already the guests were very numerous, and they continued to arrive.
The drawing-rooms filled; a crowd of men smoked in the 'library' and
the billiard-room; women swarmed in passages and staircase. After
welcoming Mrs. Rolfe with the ardour of a bosom friend and the
prostration of a devotee, the hostess turned to the next comer with
scarcely less fervency. And Alma passed on, content for the present to
be lost amid thronging strangers.

'Who are all these people?' she asked of Sibyl, who had moved along by
her side.

'Nobodies, most of them, I should imagine. There's no need to stay very
long, you know. That's Mr. Strangeways, the little man with a red face
talking to that mountain of a woman in green. Mercy, what a dress! He's
coming this way; I'll introduce him to you.'

The host had a jovial carriage and a bluff way of speaking, both
obviously affected. His eyes wandered as he talked, and never met
anyone else's with a steady look. Alma thought him offensively
familiar, but he did not inflict himself upon her for long.

When the hostess began to go hither and thither, she pounced eagerly on
Mrs. Rolfe, and soon made her the centre of a group. Alma began to
taste the old delight of homage, though she perceived that her new
acquaintances were not of the world in which she had formerly shone.
About midnight, when she was a little tired of the crush, and thought
of going, there fell upon her ear a voice which startled and aroused
her like an unexpected grasp. On the instant she saw an open place in
Munich; the next, a lake and mountains.

'I wasn't in town then. I got out of sorts, and ran away to a little
place I have on the Lake of Garda.'

The speaker was immediately behind her. She all but turned her head,
and grew hot in the effort to command herself. Amid the emotions
naturally excited in her she was impressed by a quality in the voice,