Her plans thus laid, she called in the house-maid to assist in packing her trunks, picturing to herself the alarm of her lover when he should find that she had followed him to Washington. "I will make him understand, once for all, that I am not to be trifled with by any one," she told herself, angrily, and with a bitter wonder at her failure to win Laurie Meredith's heart. "And I so beautiful, so wondrously beautiful," she thought, pausing a moment to gaze at her reflection in the glass--at her flashing dark eyes, her red lips and cheeks, her braided coronal of purplish jet-black hair. "I am beautiful enough to be a queen, yet I can not win the heart of the only man I ever cared for," she thought, with a sort of agony at her failure. But every pang she suffered only made her more determined to triumph in the end. "Only let me get Flower out of the way, and I may win him yet. I was near to it when she came, and surely I can recover my lost ground some day," she said. She was driven in her carriage to Mrs. Meredith's, and found them waiting, although they hoped that she would change her mind even at the last moment. But no, Jewel took her seat in the train as grim and implacable as fate itself, and determined as ever to make all else on earth yield to her imperious will and desire. The Merediths, thoroughly disgusted at her jealous freak, sat with her; but there was very little said by any one. But Jewel scarcely noticed the constraint and silence of Laurie's mother and sisters. She was completely wrapped up in her own dark thoughts, and remained so until they reached the end of their long journey. CHAPTER XLV. Lord Ivon and his party had been in Washington a week, when they became aware that the Merediths, with Miss Fielding, had also arrived in the city. It was on one of Patti's nights at the opera that the two parties became aware of each other's presence in opposite stage-boxes. Their first start of surprise was succeeded on either hand by amicable nods of pleased recognition. This was Jewel Fielding's role, and she had insisted on its being carried out to the letter by the Merediths. She did not desire that any one should know yet of her fierce jealousy of Azalia Brooke. Time enough yet, she said. They had been in the city one day and night, and careful inquiry revealed the fact that the absent Laurie was not in this city. The Merediths were jubilant, but Jewel would not allow them to boast over their triumph. "He will come yet, if Lord Ivon's party stays here any time," she said. And it occurred to her that she must hasten to get rid of her lovely, blue-eyed rival before the return of Laurie. The color leaped to her face, and her heart throbbed with fierce anger when she first beheld Azalia Brooke sitting in the opera-box with Lord Clive by her side, and Lord and Lady Ivon in the background.