As the explanation ran round the room people began to laugh and chatter
rapidly as if they feared the sudden reaction might end in hysteria. But
although all the candles had now been lit, the effort to revive the mild
exhilaration of the evening was fruitless. They wanted to get away. Many
still believed that a plot had been balked, and that the assassins were
lurking in one of the many rooms of the hotel.
Alexina met Olive de Morsigny in the dressing-room, and found her white and
shaking, although for four years she had proved herself a woman of strong
nerves as well as of untiring effort.
"Great heaven!" she whispered, as she helped Alexina on with her wrap. "If
he had been assassinated! In Paris! I thought Andre would faint. His last
wound is barely healed. Come, let us get out of this. Who knows?...In
Paris!..."
Their car had to wait its turn. As Alexina stood with her silent friends in
the porte cochere the certainty grew that some one was watching her. That
officer! Who else? She flashed her eyes over the crowd about her, then into
the densely packed hall behind. But she encountered no pair of eyes even
remotely humorous, no face in any degree familiar....Later she whirled
about again....There was a pillar...easy to dodge behind it....At this
moment Andre took her elbow and gently piloted her into the car.
CHAPTER II
I
Alexina in the weariness of reaction climbed the long stairs of her pension
in Passy.
Pages:
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356