a little silent frenzy she turned to Alex with heartbroken eyes and nestled into the crook of his arm.
"Ramsey," he whispered. He had disturbed those around him, even woken up somebody in the next box. But Ramsey had heard him and had come through the curtain, kneeling down beside his seat.
"There, look! With Alex; it's she." The whisper was a gasp. Shoving the opera glasses at Ramsey, he stared at the two distant figures. He didn't need the glasses to see that Cleopatra had lifted her own and was staring at them!
He heard Ramsey's low moan of distress.
Alex had turned. Alex was making a little cheerful gesture to them, a discreet little wave with his left hand.
The last dying notes of the duet ended. Applause broke out all around them. The inevitable" Bravos!" came from all directions. The house lights were rising. People were climbing to their feet.
Julie and Samir stood in the open doorway.
"What is it!" Julie demanded.
"They're leaving. I'm going after them!" Ramses said.
"No!" Julie cried.
"Julie, she's with Alex Savarell," Ramsey said." She has ensnared the Earl's son! Both of you, stay with Julie. Take Julie back to the hotel."
He knew it was no good as soon as he had reached the box. They were gone. At least three exits opened on iron stairways down the side of the building. And people were using all of them. He rushed along the mezzanine, scanning those who descended the grand stairway. Not a chance of finding them now. He was at the front doors when Elliott, Samir and Julie came down the stairs. Julie looked like the ghost of herself, clinging to Samir. Elliott was clearly drawing upon the very last of his stamina, and his face had turned a deathly white.
"It's no use," Ramses explained." They are lost again." "Our only chance then is the ball," Elliott said." It's a game, don't you see! Alex doesn't understand what's happening. He said he would meet us here, or at the ball."
THEY HAD followed the flow of the guests, streaming out of the Opera House, and walking across the broad square towards the hotel.
There was no doubt in her mind that Ramses was following them. Undoubtedly Lord Rutherford would come in the hope of rescuing his son.
She made no decision as to what she should do. The meeting was inevitable. Words must be spoken; and beyond that? She saw only freedom, but she did not know where she must go or what she must do to be free.
Killing the other, that was not the answer. A great revulsion rose in her against all the lives she'd thoughtlessly taken - even the life of the man who had fired the gun at her, whoever he had been.
Solving the riddle of why Ramses had resurrected her; of how precisely he'd done it - that must be part of what she had to do. But maybe she should run from that and run from him.
She glanced at the motor cars nosing their way up the circular drive before the entrance of Shepheard's. Why couldn't they run away, she and Alex, right now? There was time enough, wasn't there, for her to seek her old teacher, this man who had dominated all of her mortal life, and had now re-created her for reasons she couldn't understand?
And for one second a dreadful foreboding shook her. She clasped Alex's hand all the more tightly. There came his reassuring smile again. She said nothing. Her mind was confusion as they entered the bright hotel lobby and followed the crowds up another grand stairway.
The ballroom opened before them on the second floor, a vast space far larger than the ballroom she had seen last night below. Linen-draped tables lined the walls on either side; and the room itself seemed to go on forever, music surging from an orchestra now hidden by the milling crowd.
Gold draperies hung from the high-panelled ceiling. How these people loved plaster ornament; doors and windows were covered with it, as if with carefully sculpted whipped cream. Couples had already begun to dance to the music. Light appeared to drip from the great tinkling glass fixtures. Young servants moved about offering white wine in exquisite glasses from silver trays.
"How are we going to find them?" Alex said." Oh, I'm so eager for them to meet you."
"Are you?" she whispered." And if they fail to approve your choice, Lord Alex, what will you do?"