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It was only a brief paragraph, sandwiched in between the musical notes of a morning paper, to which Olga Lermontof, who came daily to Lilac Lodge to practise with Diana, drew the latter's attention.

It had seized hold of her imagination, kept him vividly before her mind as nothing else could have done, and now Olga Lermontof's strange hints and innuendos gave a fresh fillip to her desire to know in what way Max Errington differed from his fellows. "It would be dishonourable of him to make you care," Miss Lermontof had said.

Diana felt an inward conviction that Miss Lermontof knew much more concerning Max Errington than she chose to admit, and when she fell asleep that night it was to dream that she and Errington were trying to find each other through the gloom of a thick fog, whilst all the time the dark-browed, sinister face of Olga Lermontof kept appearing and disappearing between them, smiling tauntingly at their efforts.

Then she saw Olga Lermontof mounting the platform steps preparatory to accompanying Kirolski's solo, and with a sudden violent reaction from her calm composure she realised that the following item on the programme must be the first group of her own songs. For an instant the room swayed round her, then with a little gasp she clutched Baroni's arm. "I can't do it! . . . I can't do it!"

"Is it really so good?" asked Diana, with the genuine artist's craving to be reassured. Olga Lermontof looked at her speculatively. "I suppose you can't understand it at present," she said, after a pause. "You will, though, when you've given a few concerts and seen its effect upon the audience. Now, come along; it's time we started."

This last accompanied by a snort of contempt. Or it might be Olga Lermontof to whom Diana would confide her fears. She, equally with the old maestro, derided the possibility of failure, and there was something about her cool assurance of success that always sufficed to steady Diana's nerves, at least for the time being.

Hence the unmerited popularity not infrequently enjoyed by the dark, saturnine, brooding individual whose conversation savours of the tensely monosyllabic. Olga Lermontof paused a moment before replying to Diana's query. The she said briefly: "No. He's a dramatist. I shouldn't allow myself to become too interested in him if I were you."

She came in during my lesson. I believe I told you she had taken a house at Crailing, so that at home we are neighbours, you see." "Miss Lermontof consumed a biscuit in silence. Then she said abruptly: "Miss Quentin, I know you don't like me, but well, I have an odd sort of wish to do you a good turn. You had better have nothing to do with Adrienne de Gervais."

"I've been playing accompaniments all afternoon, and I've had no tea." Diana hesitated an instant, then she said impulsively "Oh, do come into my room and let me make you a cup." Olga Lermontof regarded her with a faint surprise. "Thanks," she said in her abrupt way. "I will."

It was then that Miss Lermontof apparently awoke to the fact that the English language contains further possibilities than a bare "yes" or "no." "I consider Adrienne de Gervais a most overrated actress," she remarked succinctly. A chorus of disagreement greeted this announcement. "Why, only think how quickly she's got on," argued Miss Jones.