"She!" echoed his wife decisively. "She will take the hint conveyed by the return of this card and keep a wide distance between Gabriel Mostyn's daughter and herself." The door closed after her, and Guy, after a pause of amazement at the change in his usually calm wife, turned towards the window with a half frown on his face. "She's got a temper after all," he said to himself, thrusting his hands into his pockets. "I might have guessed it. Sleeping volcanoes are always the worst when they do start." CHAPTER XV. A WOMAN SCORNED. "What! will she place her foot upon my neck, And hold me helpless, writhing in the dust? Nay, such a thing is folly at the best, 'Tis ill to tamper with the meanest worm, For, serpent-like, I'll wound her in the heel, And when she falls from her magnificence, I'll twist my coils around her dainty throat And sting!--and sting!--and sting!--until she dies." "Who is Mrs. Veilsturm?" A good many people asked this question, when a woman, black-browed, voluptuous, and imperious as Cleopatra, flashed like an unknown star into the brilliance of a London season four years ago. No one could answer this question, the quidnuncs for once were at fault, and although ladies in drawing-rooms and men in clubs set their wits to work to find out all about her, no one could give an opinion with certainty as to who she was, where she came from, and what was the source of her income. The society papers, who usually know everything, could not unravel this riddle, and it was reserved for the indefatigable Billy Dolser to lift in some measure the veil which hung over the past of this beautiful enigmatical woman. Under the heading of "A Cleopatra of To-day," an article appeared in the "Pepperbox," setting forth a very delightful story which satisfied everyone except a few suspicious grumblers, but whether it was fact or fiction, no one was quite sure. According to this veracious chronicle, Mrs. Veilsturm (or as the "Pepperbox," thinly veiling her identity, called her, Cleopatra) was a West Indian Creole, born in the island of Cuba, the daughter of a wealthy planter. Her parents died when she was young, and according to all reports, she lived a life of semi-barbaric magnificence in the somnolent Spanish island. Later, becoming tired of her secluded life, she went to Jamaica, and there met Captain Veilsturm, at that time reputed to be the handsomest man in the island. He married her, and for some time she reigned as Queen of the Regiment, but her husband dying suddenly of yellow fever, she left Jamaica, and came to England, intending with her great wealth to enter into London society.