"I leave you to judge of the sensation," continued Mr. Blunt, with
a faint grimace, as though the words had an acrid taste in his
mouth. "And the consternation," he added venomously. "Many of
those men on that great morning had some one of their womankind
with them. But their hats had to go off all the same, especially
the hats of the fellows who were under some sort of obligation to
Allegre. You would be astonished to hear the names of people, of
real personalities in the world, who, not to mince matters, owed
money to Allegre. And I don't mean in the world of art only. In
the first rout of the surprise some story of an adopted daughter
was set abroad hastily, I believe. You know 'adopted' with a
peculiar accent on the word--and it was plausible enough. I have
been told that at that time she looked extremely youthful by his
side, I mean extremely youthful in expression, in the eyes, in the
smile. She must have been . . ."

Blunt pulled himself up short, but not so short as not to let the
confused murmur of the word "adorable" reach our attentive ears.

The heavy Mills made a slight movement in his chair. The effect on
me was more inward, a strange emotion which left me perfectly
still; and for the moment of silence Blunt looked more fatal than
ever.

"I understand it didn't last very long," he addressed us politely
again. "And no wonder! The sort of talk she would have heard
during that first springtime in Paris would have put an impress on
a much less receptive personality; for of course Allegre didn't
close his doors to his friends and this new apparition was not of