performance began. He
had telephoned at an early hour in the morning, and had learned from her
maid that Rita had come home safely and was asleep. Rita had expected
him; but the influence of Monte Irvin, from whom she had parted at the
stage-door, had prevailed until she actually heard Sir Lucien's voice
in the corridor. She had resolutely refrained from looking at the little
jewelled casket, engraved "From Lucy to Rita," which lay in her make-up
box upon the table. But the imminence of an ordeal which she dreaded
intensely weakened her resolution. She swiftly dipped a little nail-file
into the white powder which the box contained, and when Pyne came in she
turned to him composedly.

"I am so sorry if I gave you a scare last night, Lucy," she said. "But I
woke up feeling sick, and I had to go out into the fresh air."

"I was certainly alarmed," drawled Pyne, whose swarthy face looked more
than usually worn in the hard light created by the competition between
the dressing-room lamps and the grey wintry daylight which crept through
the windows. "Do you feel quite fit again?"

"Quite, thanks." Rita glanced at a ring which she had not possessed
three hours before. "Oh, Lucy--I don't know how to tell you--"

She turned in her chair, looking up wistfully at Pyne, who was standing
behind her. His jaw hardened, and his glance sought the white hand upon
which the costly gems glittered. He coughed nervously.

"Perhaps"--his drawling manner of speech temporarily deserted him; he
spoke jerkily--"perhaps--I can guess."

She watched him in a pathetic way, and there was a threat of tears in
her beautiful eyes; for whatever his earlier intentions may have
been, Sir Lucien had proved a staunch friend and, according to his own
peculiar code, an honorable lover.

"Is it--Irvin?" he asked jerkily.

Rita nodded, and a tear glistened upon her darkened lashes.

Sir Lucien cleared his throat again, then coolly extended his hand, once
more master of his emotions.

"Congratulations, Rita," he said. "The better man wins. I hope you will
be very happy."

He turned and walked quietly out of the dressing-room.

CHAPTER XVI. LIMEHOUSE

It was on the following Tuesday evening that Mrs. Sin came to the
theatre, accompanied by Mollie Gretna. Rita instructed that she should
be shown up to the dressing-room. The personality of this singular
woman interested her keenly. Mrs. Sin was well known in certain Bohemian
quarters, but was alwa