“Now, who told you that, Doctor Johnson?” she exclaimed, still laughing, and her friends laughed too. “All night I have tried to retain my incognita, but people one after another have penetrated it. Sit down and have some champagne, won’t you?” and she pushed a chair towards him. He saw at once that she herself had drunk as much champagne as was good for her. “Thank you very much,” he said, “but I won’t, if you will excuse me. I would sooner have said in private, Mrs. Robertson, what I have to tell you, but as you have insisted on my coming in I must tell it to you here. One of your guests to-night was, I believe, a Mr. Schomberg?” “Yes,” she answered. “Why, what has become of him?” she added, looking round. “We have not seen him for quite a long time. Mr. Johnson you might introduce your friends,” as Preston and Blenkiron still stood in the background. “I will in a moment. But first I have some rather dreadful news to break to you, Mrs. Robertson. You must brace yourself for a shock. Mr. Schomberg has died suddenly. He died here, in this box, less than an hour ago.” At once everybody grew solemn. The party became hushed. “Levi--_dead_!” Jessica gasped after a pause. “It is impossible. He was here only just now, and quite well!” “An hour ago,” Johnson corrected. “I was sent for, and I found Mr. Schomberg lying on the sofa in the secretary’s office, dead.” “But where did he die? And who found him?” “As I say, he died in this box, where he was found by these two gentlemen, whom I think you know,” and he turned to the masked figures at his elbow, “Mr. Blenkiron and Captain Preston.” As his name was mentioned, it struck Preston that Jessica gave a little start. He told Blenkiron afterwards, however, that he could have sworn she did. Jessica bowed. “But how did you come to be in this box?” she asked, looking up at them from where she sat. “I must apologize for our having intruded, Mrs. Robertson,” Preston said, “but how it happened was this,” and he went on to explain how he and Blenkiron, noticing that the masked man sitting alone in her box appeared to be unwell, had obtained admittance to the box. “That was most kind of you,” Jessica said when he stopped speaking. “But really this news is too terrible. I can’t realize it. Poor Levi! And he seemed so well to-night, and in such excellent spirits.” She stopped abruptly. “I wonder who it was sent in to see him early in the evening?” she said after a pause. “He seemed put out when he came back, and didn’t volunteer to tell anybody what was amiss, so of course I couldn’t ask him. But he got all right again a little later.” “That would hardly have any bearing on the cause of death, Mrs. Robertson.” It was Johnson who spoke. He was looking hard at her through the holes in his mask. Apparently through forgetfulness he had not taken it off.