or five creatures herded in a bare loose-box, in
the intervals of painting and dressing, engaged with talk of frills or
scandal. The private dressing-rooms of those great creatures, the
leading men and ladies, were still a sealed book. He had never known
(oh, horrid thought!) a "lead," and he surveyed the present room with
interest.

There was little to reward him, for it was a very ordinary room, quietly
furnished with two or three easy chairs, a dressing-table covered with
"making-up" apparatus, a number of photographs scattered about in
various coigns of vantage, a wall-paper of a warm terra-cotta tint, a
soft carpet to correspond. A brass curtain-rod divided the room in two,
but the curtain was not drawn. "Will you sit down?" said the hostess; "I
must leave you for a moment. Try that chair in the corner,--it is the
best. And do smoke--the cigarettes are close to you on that little
table."

With a swift movement she pulled the curtain along its rod and
disappeared behind it. There followed a slight clicking as if she was
switching on more light; then a soft rustling and the sound of her voice
humming an air from _Carmen_. Lionel obediently lighted a cigarette and
patiently awaited events.

In less than ten minutes she drew the curtain and stood before him
again. But now she was a different creature. Her Bond Street costume had
disappeared, the twentieth-century had gone. The piquant head was
covered only with the dark masses of hair that gleamed seductively. She
was clad in a sort of peignoir, a loose flowing robe of Oriental
texture, crimson of hue, with dull gold braiding and tassels. Her face
was rouged and powdered, but in the brilliant electric glare it seemed
neither out of keeping nor meretricious. As she stood, holding the drawn
curtain with one hand, she looked as if she had stepped straight out of
the pages of the _Arabian Nights_.

"Do you like it?" she asked carelessly, sure of the effect. Poor Lionel,
on most occasions ready of tongue, who took a pride in never showing
surprise, could only murmur "Admirable!" With this, however, she seemed
content, and sat down in a convenient chair.

"Luckily, it is a straight make-up," she said, taking a cigarette and
lighting it. "As a rule I use grease-paint, but to-night I was in a
hurry and made-up dry. I want to talk. I am not on for a while, and my
dress can be slipped on in five minutes. I mean to tell you as briefly
as I can my history. It is your due."