Lady Chandos?" asked the singer. "You
bring all these accusations against me and give me no opportunity of
clearing myself of them."

"You cannot," said Lady Chandos; "I have no wish to hear your defense,
you can neither deny nor explain the fact that you spent a day with my
husband on the river; all the sophistry in the world cannot deny that
fact, and that fact condemns you."

"Would you say the same thing to any of your former friends?" asked
Leone--"to Lady Caldwell or Lady Blake?"

"Neither of them would do such a thing," cried Lady Chandos. "Ladies of
the class to which I belong do not spend whole days on the river with
gentlemen unknown to their wives. Madame Vanira--you and I are strangers
from this time."

"You are very hard on me," said Leone; "the day may come when you will
admit that."

"The day will never come in which I will mistake good for evil, or right
for wrong," said Lady Chandos. "Others may applaud you, you may continue
your sway over the minds and hearts of men, but I shall protest against
you, and all those like you, who would come between husbands and wives
to separate them."

It was such a satire of fate, such a satire of her own life, that
Leone's beautiful lips curled with a bitter smile. It was she who had
been parted from her husband by a quibble of the law, and this fair,
angry woman had taken him for herself.

Lady Chandos saw the smile and misunderstood it. She bowed, and would
have passed, but Leone tried to stop her.

"Will you not say one kind word to me before you go, Lady Chandos?" she
asked.

"I have not one kind word to say," was the brief reply.

She would have passed on, but fate again intervened in the person of
Lord Chandos, who was walking with his hostess, the Countess of Easton.
They stopped before the two ladies, and Lord Chandos saw at once that
something was wrong. Madame Vanira, after exchanging a few words with
the countess, went away, and as soon as he could, Lord Chandos rejoined
his wife.

"Marion," he said, curtly, "you have had some disagreeable words with
Madame Vanira. I know it by the expression of your face."

"You are right," she said; "I have told her that henceforth she and I
shall be strangers."

"You have dared!" he cried, forgetting himself at the thought of Leone's
face.

She turned her fair face proudly to him.

"I have dared," she replied; "I refuse to speak or see Madame Vanira
again--she must not cross the threshold of my door