"Thank you, Senora!" she answered, pronouncing the Spanish form of
address with a lingering sweetness, "It is very good of you! But I
should not please you. I do not know the world, and I am not quick
to learn. I am better where I am."

A little smile, dreamy and mysterious, crept round Morgana's lips.

"Yes!-perhaps you are!" she said--"I understand! You would not like
to leave HIM! I am sure that is so! You want to feed your big bear
regularly with bread and milk--yes, you poor deluded child! Courage!
You may still have a chance to be, as you say, 'his woman!' And when
you are I wonder how you will like it!"

She laughed, and began to brush her shining hair out in two silky
lengths on either side. Manella gazed and gazed at the glittering
splendour till she could gaze no more for sheer envy, and then she
turned slowly and left the room.

Alone, Morgana continued brushing her hair meditatively,--then,
twisting it up in a great coil out of her way, she proceeded with
her toilette. Everything of the very finest and daintiest was hers
to wear, from the silken hose to the delicate lace camisole, and
when she reached the finishing point in her admirably cut summer
serge gown and becoming close-fitting hat, she studied herself from
head to foot in the mirror with fastidious care to be sure that
every detail of her costume was perfect. She was fully aware that
she was not a newspaper camera "beauty" and that she had subtle
points of attraction which no camera could ever catch, and it was
just these points which she knew how to emphasise.