ph!" The Russian's eyes narrowed until they looked like two slits
of green fire. "Humph! I was wrong, was I? Nevertheless, I'm
perfectly sure that Adrienne de Gervais' past is a closed book to
you--although you call yourself her friend!"

Diana turned away without reply. It was true--Olga Lermontof had laid
a finger on the weak spot in her friendship with Adrienne. The latter
never talked to her of her past life; their mutual attachment was built
solely around the present, and if by chance any question of Diana's
accidentally probed into the past, it was adroitly parried. Even of
Adrienne's nationality she was in ignorance, merely understanding,
along with the rest of the world, that she was of French extraction.
This assumption had probably been founded in the first instance upon
her name, and Adrienne never troubled either to confirm or contradict
it.

Mrs. Adams, her companion-chaperon, always made Diana especially
welcome at the house in Somervell Street.

"You must come again soon, my dear," she would say cordially.
"Adrienne makes few friends--and your visits are such a relaxation to
her. The life she leads is rather a strain, you know."

At times Diana noticed a curious aloofness in her friend, as though her
professional success occupied a position of relatively small importance
in her estimation, and once she had commented on it half jokingly.

"You don't seem to value your laurels one bit," she had said, as
Adrienne contemptuously tossed aside a newspaper containing a eulogy of
her claims to distinction which most actresses would have carefully cut
out and pasted into their book of critiques.

"Fame?" Adrienne had answered. "What is it? Merely the bubble of a
day."

"Well," returned Diana, laughing, "it's the aim and object of a good
many people's lives. It's the bubble I'm in pursuit of, and if I
obtain one half the recognition you have had, I shall be very content."

Adrienne regarded her musingly.

"You will be famous when the name of Adrienne de Gervais is known no
longer," she said at last.

Diana stared at her in surprise.

"But why? Even if I should succeed, within the next few years, you
will still be Adrienne de Gervais, the famous actress."

Adrienne smiled across at her.

"Ah, I cannot tell you why," she said lightly. "But--I think it will
be like that."

Her eyes gazed dreamily into space, as though she perceived some vision
of the future, but whether that future were o