There was a cloud upon his face which he did his best to conceal.

Almost simultaneously, a messenger from behind the scenes arrived for Nita.

She rose to her feet and wrapped her green cloak closely around her lissom figure.
"In a quarter of an hour," she said, "I have to appear again.

It is to be good-night, then ?" She raised her eyes to his, and for a moment the appeal which knows no nationality shone out of their velvety depths.

She stood before him simply, like a slave who pleads.