He turned and saw the tears in her eyes, and his anger vanished.
'Oh, I know. I've no business to speak so--but--I'm naturally cut up, you know. Don't cry about it; you can't help it. If you don't love me, you don't, and that ends the matter. I'll get over it, Marcia.' He smiled a trifle bleakly. 'I'm not the fellow to sit down and cry when I can't have what I want. I've gone without things before.' He offered her his arm. 'We'll go back now; I'm afraid you're missing your dances.'
Marcia barely touched his arm, and they turned back without speaking. He led her into the hall, and bowing with his eyes on the floor, turned back out of doors. She laughed and chatted her way through two or three groups before she could reach the stairs and escape to her own room, where she locked the door and sank down on the floor by the couch. Trouble was beginning for her sooner than she had thought, and underneath the remorse and pity she felt for Paul, the thing that lay like lead on her heart was the look on Sybert's face as he turned away.
A knock presently came on the door, followed by a rattling of the knob.
'Marcia, Marcia!' called Eleanor Royston. 'Are you in there?' Marcia raised her head and listened in silence.
The knock came again. She rose and went to the door.
'I want to come in. It's I--Eleanor. Open the door. Why don't you come down?'
Marcia shook out her rumpled skirts, pushed back her hair, and opened the door.
'Everybody's asking for you. The ambassador says you were engaged to him for a---- Why, what's the matter?'
Marcia drew back quickly into the shadow, and Eleanor stepped in and closed the door behind her.
'What's the matter, child?' she inquired again. 'You've been crying! Has Paul----?' she asked suddenly. Eleanor's intuitive faculties were abnormally developed. 'I suppose he was pretty nasty,' she proceeded, taking Marcia's answer for granted. 'He can be on occasion. But, to tell you the truth, I think he has some cause to be. I think you deserve all you got.'
Marcia sank into a chair with a gesture of weariness, and Eleanor walked about the room handling the ornaments.
'Oh, I knew he was in love with you. There's nothing subtle about Paul. He wears his heart on his sleeve, if any one ever did. But if you don't mind my saying so, Marcia, I think you've been playing with rather a high hand. It's hardly legitimate, you know, to deliberately set out to make a man fall in love with you.'