shing degree of happiness as an outcome of these business-like
unions. At this moment she felt no anger against her own mother for
having tried to follow a similar course. Her prevailing sensation was
annoyance with herself for having been so difficult to lead.

"It must be my English blood. Somehow, when it came to the point, I
never _could_. But Mr Judge is different from most men. He is so good
and generous and unmercenary. He'd be kind to mother, and let her live
with us, and make no fuss. He is as charming to her as he is to me.
Oh, dear, I _am_ selfish! I _am_ a wretch! It isn't as if I were in
love with anyone else. I'm not. Perhaps I never shall be. I'll never
have the chance if I live in lodgings and spend my life teaching
irregular verbs. Why can't I be sensible and French, and marry him and
live happily ever after? _Pauvre petite mere_! Why can't I think of
_her_?"

Suddenly Claire swooped down upon her mother's drooping figure, wrapped
her in loving arms, and swung her gently to and fro. She was a tall,
strikingly graceful girl, with a face less regularly beautiful than her
mother's, but infinitely more piquant and attractive. She was more
plump and rounded than the modern English girl, and her complexion less
pink and white, but she was very neat and dainty and smart, possessed
deep-set, heavily-lashed grey eyes, red lips which curled mischievously
upward at the corner, and a pair of dimples on her soft left cheek.

The dimples were in full play at this moment; the large one was just on
the level with the upward curl of the lips, the smaller one nestled
close to its side. In repose they were almost unnoticed, but at the
slightest lighting of expression, at the first dawn of a smile, they
danced into sight and became the most noticeable feature of her face.
Claire without her dimples would have been another and far less
fascinating personality.

"Mother darling, forgive me! Kiss me, _cherie_--don't look sad! I
_have_ had a good time, and we'll have a good time yet, if it is in my
power to get it for you. Cheer up! Things won't be as bad as you fear.
We won't allow them to be bad. ... How much does the horrid old bank
say that we owe? Three hundred francs. I can pay it out of my own
little savings. Does it mean literally that there is nothing more,
nothing at all--not a single sou?"

"Oh no. I have some shares. They have been worthless for years, but
just lately they have gone