indispensable smile of welcome to some customer who had evidently
entered the trying-on room from the other side. The phenomenon
distressed him. She disappeared from view behind the portière, and
reappeared, but only for a moment, talking to a foppish old man with a
white moustache. It was Senior Polycarp, the lawyer.

Hugo flushed, and, abandoning the manager in the middle of a sentence,
fled to his central office. He had no confidence in his self-command....
Could this be jealousy? Was it possible that he, Hugo, should be so far
gone? Nay!

But what was Polycarp, that old and desiccated widower, doing in the
millinery department?

He said he must form some definite plan, and begin by giving her a
private room.




CHAPTER III

HUGO EXPLAINS HIMSELF


'And what,' asked Hugo, smiling faintly at Mr. Senior Polycarp--'what is
your client's idea of price?'

For half an hour they had been talking in the luxurious calm of Hugo's
central office, which was like an island refuge in the middle of that