she had let the driver go free because of his good taste.

As the procession whizzed through nocturnal streets, some thunderous with
traffic, others very quiet, but all lined with lofty regular buildings,
Audrey was penetrated by the romance of this city where cabmen passionately
and to the point of suicide and murder adored their fares. And she thought
that perhaps, after all, Madame Piriac's impression of Paris might not be
entirely misleading. Miss Ingate and Nick talked easily, very charmed with
one another, both excited. Audrey said little, and the dark youth said
nothing. But once the dark youth murmured shyly to Audrey in English:

"Do you play at ten-nis, Madame?"

They crossed a thoroughfare that twinkled and glittered from end to end
with moving sky-signs. Serpents pursued burning serpents on the heights of
that thoroughfare, invisible hands wrote mystic words of warning and
invitation, and blazing kittens played with balls of incandescent wool.
Throngs of promenaders moved under theatrical trees that waved their pale
emerald against the velvet sky, and the ground floor of every edifice was a
glowing café, whose tables, full of idle sippers and loungers, bulged out
on to the broad pavements.... The momentary vision was shut off instantly
as the taxis shot down the mouth of a dark narrow street; but it had been
long enough to make Audrey's heart throb.

"What is that?" she asked.

"That?" exclaimed Nick kindly. "Oh! That's only the _grand boulevard_."

Then they crossed the sombre, lamp-reflecting Seine, and soon afterwards
the two taxis stopped at a vast black door in a very wide street of serried