For a brief space of time she had escaped, she had
wandered a little way into an unknown country, a country from whose
thrilling dangers she had emerged with a curious feeling that life would
never be altogether the same again. 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. A little waft of familiar perfume stole in. La Belle Nita, her
flaming lips widely parted, as soon as she recognised the sole occupant
of the box, crept through the opening and closed the door again.
"You are here?" she exclaimed incredulously. "Your courage failed you?
You did not go?"
"I have been and returned," Maggie answered. "Now tell me what I have
done that you should have plotted this thing against me?"
The girl sat on the edge of a chair and for a moment hummed the refrain
of a sad chant, as she rocked slowly backwards and forwards.
"'What have you done?' the rose asked the butterfly. 'What have you
done?' the mimosa blossom asked the little blue bird, whose wings
fluttered amongst her leaves.
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