What faces would show before her when she advanced upon the platform?  Would she behold Sibyl, or Hugh Carnaby, or Cyrus Redgrave?  Their presence would all but convince her that she had passed some hours of yesterday in delirium.  They might be present; for was not she —­ she herself —­ about to step forward and play in public?  Their absence —­ what would it mean?  Where were they at this moment?  What had happened in the life of each since last she saw them?

When it was time to begin to dress, she undertook the task with effort, with repugnance.  She would have chosen to sit here, in a drowsy idleness, and let the hours go by.  On her table stood the little vial with its draught of oblivion.  Oh to drink of it again, and to lay her head upon the pillow and outsleep the day!

Nevertheless, when she had exerted herself, and was clad in the fresh garments of spring, the mirror came to her help.  She was pale yet; but pallor lends distinction to features that are not commonplace, and no remark of man or woman had ever caused her to suspect that her face was ordinary.  She posed before the glass, holding her violin, and the picture seemed so effective that she began to regain courage.  A dreadful thing had happened —­ perhaps more dreadful than she durst imagine —­ but her own part in it was nothing worse than folly and misfortune.  She had no irreparable sin to hide.  Her moment of supreme peril was past, and would not return.  If now she could but brace her nerves, and pass successfully through the ordeal of the next few hours, the victory for which she had striven so hard, and had risked so much, would at length be won.  Everything dark and doubtful she must try to forget.  Success would give her new strength; to fail, under any circumstances ignominious, would at this crisis of her life he a disaster fraught with manifold and intolerable shame.

She played a few notes.  Her hand was steady once more; she felt her confidence revive.  Whenever she had performed before an audience, it had always seemed to her that she must inevitably break down; yet at the last minute came power and self-control.  So it would be today.  The greater the demand upon her, so much the surer her responsive energy.  She would not see faces.  When all was over, let the news be disclosed, the worst that might be waiting; between now and then lay an infinity of time.

So, when she went downstairs to meet Harvey, the change in her appearance surprised him.  He had expected a bloodless countenance, a tremulous step; hut Alma came towards him with the confident carriage of an earlier day, with her smile of superiority, her look that invited or demanded admiration.

‘Well?  You won’t be ashamed of me?’

‘To tell the truth,’ said Harvey, ’I was going because I feared someone would have to look after you in the middle of the affair.  If there’s no danger of that, I think I shall not go into the place at all.’