voice behind her:

"Now, you must be Miss Ingate!"

"I am," Miss Ingate almost ecstatically admitted.

The trio in cloaked fancy dress were surrounding Miss Ingate like a
bodyguard.



CHAPTER IX

LIFE IN PARIS


Miss Thompkins and Miss Nickall were a charm to dissipate all the
affrighting menace of the city beyond the station. Miss Thompkins had
fluffy red hair, with the freckles which too often accompany red hair, and
was addressed as Tommy. Miss Nickall had fluffy grey hair, with warm,
loving eyes, and was addressed as Nick. The age of either might have been
anything from twenty-four to forty. The one came from Wyoming, the other
from Arizona; and it was instantly clear that they were close friends. They
had driven up to the terminus before going to a fancy-dress ball to be
given that night in the studio of Monsieur Dauphin, a famous French painter
and a delightful man. They had met Monsieur Dauphin on the previous evening
on the terrace of the Café de Versailles, and Monsieur had said, in
response to their suggestion, that he would be enchanted and too much
honoured if they would bring their English friends to his little
"leaping"--that was, hop.