that term you mean 'advanced' or in any way unwomanly. But she has
been singularly gifted by nature--yes, dear child, I must be
allowed to speak!"--this, as Innocent made an appealing gesture,--
"and if people say she is the author of the book that is just now
being so much talked of, they are only saying the truth. The
secret cannot be kept much longer."

He heard--then went quickly up to the girl where she stood in a
somewhat dejected attitude near his easel.

"Then it IS true!" he said--"I heard it yesterday from an old
journalist friend of mine, John Harrington--but I couldn't quite
believe it. Let me congratulate you on your brilliant success--"

"You do not care!" she said, almost in a whisper.

"Oh, do I not?" He was amused, and taking her hand kissed it
lightly. "If all literary women were like YOU--"

He left the sentence unfinished, but his eyes conveyed a wordless
language which made her heart beat foolishly and her nerves
thrill. She forgot the easy mockery which had distinguished his
manner since when speaking of the "blue-stocking element"-and once
more "Amadis de Jocelyn" sat firmly on her throne of the ideal!

That very afternoon, on her return from Jocelyn's studio to Miss
Leigh's little house in Kensington which she now called her
"home"--she found a reply-paid telegram from her publishers,
running thus: