sat down, demurely waiting, until Lady Blakeney should require her
services.

When Marguerite and Juliette Marny entered the little room, she rose and
came forward a few steps.

"I am ready, Madame," she said pleasantly, "whenever you wish me to
begin. I have thought out a short programme,--shall I start with the gay
or the sentimental songs?"

But before Marguerite had time to utter a reply, she felt her arm
nervously clutched by a hot and trembling hand.

"Who ... who is this woman?" murmured Juliette Marny close to her ear.

The young girl looked pale and very agitated, and her large eyes were
fixed in unmistakable wrath upon the French actress before her. A little
startled, not understanding Juliette's attitude, Marguerite tried to reply
lightly:

"This is Mademoiselle Candeille, Juliette dear," she said, affecting the
usual formal introduction, "of the Varietes Theatre of Paris--
Mademoiselle Desiree Candeille, who will sing some charming French
ditties for us to-night."

While she spoke she kept a restraining hand on Juliette's quivering arm.
Already, with the keen intuition which had been on the qui-vive the
whole evening, she scented some mystery in this sudden outburst on the
part of her young protegee.