She glanced at the clock at the back of the box.

She had been absent from the Hall altogether only about an hour and twenty minutes.

There was still at least an hour before it would be possible for her to plead weariness and escape.

And opposite, in the shadows of the distant box, the mock Prince Shan seemed always to be gazing at her with that cryptic smile upon his lips.
Presently the door was stealthily opened.

A face as pale as death, with black eyes like pieces of coal, was framed for a moment in the shadowed slit.