men or women. To look at her with admiration was such a cheap
form of appreciation, and one so distasteful to her, that had
he known it, Kalonay's averted eyes were more of a compliment
than any words he could have spoken. His companions who had
seen him with other women knew that his manner to her was not
his usual manner, and that he gave her something he did not
give to the others; that he was more discreet and less ready,
and less at ease.

The Prince Kalonay had first met Miss Carson and her mother by
chance in Paris, at the rooms of Father Paul, where they had
each gone on the same errand, and since that meeting his whole
manner toward the two worlds in which he lived had altered so
strangely that mere acquaintances noticed the change.

Before he had met her, the little the priest had said
concerning her and her zeal for their common desire had piqued
his curiosity, and his imagination had been aroused by the
picture of a romantic young woman giving her fortune to save
the souls of the people of Messina; his people whom he
regarded and who regarded him less as a feudal lord than as a
father and a comrade. He had pictured her as a nervous,
angular woman with a pale, ascetic face, and with the restless
eyes of an enthusiast, dressed in black and badly dressed, and
with a severe and narrow intelligence. But he had prepared
himself to forgive her personality, for the sake of the high
and generous impulse that inspired her. And when he was
presented to her as she really was, and found her young,
lovable, and nobly fair, the shock of wonder and delight had
held him silent during the whole course of her interview with