"I've not heard any one. I was in my pantry," said Alfred.

"It's very odd," said Germaine.

"It is odd," said Sonia. "Statuettes don't move about of
themselves."

All of them stared at the statuette as if they expected it to move
again forthwith, under their very eyes. Then Alfred put it back in
its usual place on one of the cabinets, and went out of the room.

Sonia poured out the tea; and over it they babbled about the coming
marriage, the frocks they would wear at it, and the presents
Germaine had already received. That reminded her to ask Sonia if any
one had yet telephoned from her father's house in Paris; and Sonia
said that no one had.

"That's very annoying," said Germaine. "It shows that nobody has
sent me a present to-day."

Pouting, she shrugged her shoulders with an air of a spoiled child,
which sat but poorly on a well-developed young woman of twenty-
three.

"It's Sunday. The shops don't deliver things on Sunday," said Sonia
gently.

But Germaine still pouted like a spoiled child.