you have quite made a conquest of my mother--you do
not know how she admires you!"

A bitter smile curled the beautiful lips.

"It is too late," she said sadly. "It does not seem very long since she
refused even to tolerate me."

Lord Chandos continued:

"She was speaking about you yesterday, and she was quite animated about
you; she praised you more than I have ever heard her praise any one."

"I ought to feel flattered," said Leone; "but it strikes me as being
something wonderful that Lady Lanswell did not find out any good
qualities in me before."

"My mother saw you through a haze of hatred," said Lord Chandos; "now
she will learn to appreciate you."

A sudden glow of fire flashed in those superb eyes.

"I wonder," she said, "if I shall ever be able to pay my debt to Lady
Lanswell, and in what shape I shall pay it?"

He shuddered as he gazed in the beautiful face.

"Try to forget that, Leone," he said; "I never like to remember that you
threatened my mother."

"We will not discuss it," she said, coldly; "we shall never agree."

Then the band began to play the quadrilles. Lord Chandos led Leone to
her place. He thought to himself what cruel wrong it was on the part of
fate, that the woman whom he had believed to be his wedded wife should
be standing there, a visitor in the house which ought to have been her
home.

CHAPTER XLVII.

THE COMPACT OF FRIENDSHIP.

The one set of quadrilles had been danced, and Leone said to herself
that there was more pain than pleasure in it, when Lady Marion, with an
unusual glow of animation on her face, came to Leone, who was sitting
alone.

"Madame Vanira," she said, "it seems cruel to deprive others of the
pleasure of your society, but I should like to talk to you. I have some
pretty things which I have brought from Spain, which I should like to
show you. Will it please you to leave the ballroom and come with me, or
do you care for dancing?"

Leone smiled sadly; tragedy and comedy are always side by side, and it
seemed to her, who had had so terrible a tragedy in her life, who stood
face to face with so terrible a tragedy now, it seemed to her absurd
that she should think of dancing.

"I would rather talk to you," she replied, "than do anything else." The
two beautiful, graceful women left the ballroom together. Leone made
some remark on the magnificence of the rooms as they passed, and Lady
Chandos smiled.

"I am a very home-loving being myself. I pr