not live alone in Paris. But she must go to Paris! but with whom? Not
with Elsie or Cissy--they both had studios in London. Moreover, they
were not quite the girls she would like to live with; they were very
well as studio friends. Mildred thought she might hire a chaperon;
that would be very expensive! And for the solution of her difficulty
Mildred sought in vain until one day, in the National Gallery, Miss
Brand suggested that they should go to Paris together.

Miss Brand had told Mildred how she had begun life as a musician. When
she was thirteen she had followed Rubenstein from London to
Birmingham, from Birmingham to Manchester, and then to Liverpool. Her
parents did not know what had become of her. Afterwards she studied
counterpoint and harmony with Rubenstein in St. Petersburg, and also
with Von Bulow in Leipsic. But she had given up music for journalism.
Her specialty was musical criticism, to which, having been thrown a
good deal with artists, she had added art criticism. Mildred could
help her with her art criticism.... She thought they'd get on very
well together.... She would willingly share the expenses, of a little
flat.

Mildred was fascinated by the project; if she could possibly get
Harold to agree.... He must agree. He would raise many objections. But
that did not matter; she was determined. And at the end of the month
Mildred and Miss Brand left for Paris.

They had decided that for fifteen hundred or two thousand francs a
year they could find an apartment that would suit them, five or six
rooms within easy reach of the studio, and, leaning back in their cab
discussing the advantages or the disadvantages of the apartment they
had seen, they grew conscious of their intimacy and Mildred rejoiced