Constance for it; but in the height of his
anger he had forgotten the fact.

"Ada!" he exclaimed in a low voice full of suppressed indignation. "What
is the meaning of this intrusion? You've no business here."

"No business here! Oh, haven't I?" she answered harshly, her bosom
heaving, and her bejewelled hands clenching.

"No," he continued, standing in front of her so that she should not be
seen by the dancers. "You know that as well as I do. How did you come?"

"On my legs," retorted the lady defiantly. "They're good for something
else besides dancing in your theatre, Adrien. You're an unfeeling brute
to speak to me like that after the way you've treated me. Do you think
I'm going to be thrown aside like a worn-out glove, just because you
want to marry that grand swell of a cousin."

"Silence!" said Adrien in a tense whisper, and grasping her arm almost
savagely. "Keep your mask on, and come with me. If you are discovered, I
will not answer for the consequences."

She rose sullenly, but abashed by his unusual vehemence, for never yet
had she seen him moved from his polite calm; and opening the door at the
end of the room, he led her away from the brilliant ball-room.

"Now," he said as he closed the door and removed the mask from his face,
"what does this mean? There is something more in your presence than I
can understand. Whether I marry or not, it can be nothing to you, Ada;
you have the money, which is all you care for."

"No, I haven't," she retorted loudly, "and you know it!"

He held up his hand with a gesture of contemptuous command.

"Speak quietly, if you can," he said, "or I leave you at once. Do you
mean to tell me you have not received the deeds?"

"I do," she replied sulkily. "It ain't no use your carrying it off in
this high-handed way, because I ain't going to be deceived by it! You
promised me that you'd make me an allowance of a thousand a year, and
give me the theatre when you left me. Well, you've left me right enough,
but where's the money? That's what I want to know."

"I gave the deed to Jasper," said Adrien, looking down upon her with
distaste, and vaguely wondering how he could ever have endured such a
woman near him.

"You gave it to Jasper, did you?" said Ada, pulling or rather tugging
off her mask viciously, as she spoke. "Hang me if I didn't think so all
the time!" she exclaimed with a sudden change of tactics. "That Jasper's
a thief. I heard you say something about those dee