"Vaura, my darling, are you rested?" he said, his voice anything but
steady.
"Yes," she answered dreamily; "but why did you break the spell? it is
so seductive here, I half thought you a magician and this a scene of
enchantment."
"I broke the spell, darling, because I could bear no longer the----"
Here footsteps were heard, both on the gravel walk outside the small
conservatory and in the corridor by which they had entered the
boudoir. And though the occupants did not see Del Castello, he saw
them at the same time as Everly with De Vesey (a gay Paris beau to
whom Vaura had been engaged for this dance, now over) crossed the
threshold. De Vesey, on seeing the situation, and not caring to be _de
trop_, was for retreating, but Everly was in no mood for this, now
that his dance and his only one for the night was on the _tapis_. He,
like any other man, would have feared to leave the woman he loved with
a man so fascinating as Trevalyon. Vaura, in the second or two of
their hesitation, had time to recover outward composure. Lionel folded
his arms, moved a pace or two backwards, and stood like a statue; the
muscles of his face throbbed, but in the dim rose-tinted light Everly
and De Vesey coming from the glare of the lustres and torches of the
ball-room did not see clearly.
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