against the wall, staring at Miss Schley.
His face still looked bloated. Presently Miss Schley glanced at him,
as if by accident, looked surprised at seeing him there, and nodded
demurely. He made a movement forward from the wall, but she immediately
began to whisper to Leo Ulford, and after remaining for a moment in an
attitude of angry hesitation he moved backward again. His face flushed
scarlet.

Lady Holme realised that he was making a fool of himself. She saw
several pairs of eyes turned towards him, slight smiles appearing
on several faces. The French actor had begun to watch him with an
expression of close criticism, as a stage manager watches an actor at
rehearsal. But she did not feel as if she cared what Fritz was doing.
The sound of the violin had emphasised her odd sensation of having
nothing to do with what was going on in the room. Just for one hour
Fritz's conduct could not affect her.

Very soon people began to whisper round her. Artists find it very
difficult to listen to other artists on these occasions. In a minute or
two almost everybody was speaking with an air of mystery. Miss Schley
put her lips to Leo Ulford's ear. Evidently she had a great deal to say
to him. He began to pout his lips in smiles. They both looked across at
Lord Holme. Then Miss Schley went on murmuring words into Leo's ear and
Leo began to shake with silent laughter. Lord Holme clenched his hands
at his sides. The French actor, still watching him closely, put up a
fat forefinger and meditatively traced the outline of his own profile,
pushing out his large flexible lips when the finger was drawing near to
them. The whole room was full of the tickling noise of half-whispered
conversation.

Presently the music stopped. Instantly the tickling noise stopped too.
There was languid applause--the applause of smart people on a summer
afternoon--from beyond the screen. Then the grave girl reappeared,
looking graver and hot. Those who had been busily talking while she
was playing gathered round her to express their delight in her kind
accompaniment. The pianist hurried up to a stout man with a low,
turned-down collar and a white satin tie, whose double chin, and general
air of rather fatuous prosperity, proclaimed him the possessor of a
tenor voice, and Miss Schley walked quietly, but with determination, up
to where Lady Holme was sitting and took a seat beside her.

"Glad to meet you again," she drawled.

She called Leo Ulford with