at my lady did not in the least recognize
her--there could be no doubt of it. She continued to praise her.

"I have always," she said, "been far above what I consider the
littleness of those people who think to show their superiority by
abusing the stage, or rather by treating with supercilious contempt
those who ornament the stage. Something," she added, with an air of
patronage, "is due to queens."

And again Lord Chandos smiled bitterly to himself. If his mother had but
owned these opinions a short time before, how different life might have
been. Lady Lanswell turned to her son.

"Madame Vanira will be at Lady Marion's ball on Tuesday," she said: "I
am sorry that I shall not meet her."

"Are you not coming, mother?" he asked, with a certain secret hope that
she was not.

"No; the earl has made an engagement for me, which I am compelled to
keep," she said, "much to my regret."

And she spoke truthfully. The proud and haughty countess found herself
much impressed by the grace, genius, and beauty of Madame Vanira.

Leone had looked forward to the evening of the ball as to an ordeal that
must be passed through. She dreaded it, yet longed for it. She could not
rest for thinking of it. She was to enter as a guest the house where she
should have reigned mistress. She was to be the visitor of the woman who
had taken her place. How should she bear it? how would it pass? For the
first time some of the terrible pain of jealousy found its way into her
heart--a pain that blanched her face, and made her tremble; a new pain
to her in the fire of its burning.

When the night of the ball came it found her with a pale face; her usual
radiant coloring faded, and she looked all the lovelier for it. She
dressed herself with unusual care and magnificence.

"I must look my best to-night," she said to herself, with a bitter
smile. "I am going to see the home that should have been my own. I am
going to visit Lady Chandos, and I believed myself to be Lady Chandos
and no other. I must look my best."

She chose a brocade of pale amber that looked like woven sunbeams; it
was half covered with point lace and trimmed with great creamy roses.
She wore a _parure_ of rubies, presented by an empress, who delighted in
her glorious voice; on her beautiful neck, white and firm as a pillar,
she wore a necklace of rubies; on her white breast gleamed a cross of
rubies, in which the fire flashed like gleams of light.

She had never looked so mag