xclamation was sharp. Here, at least, was something they
knew all about and systematically discountenanced. "Do you mean that you
had your skin ripped off?" asked Mrs. Ruyler.

"Certainly not. The skin was simply softened and reinvigorated by
massage and the proper applications."

They were too proud to ask for details, and Mrs. de Lacey, who was stout,
glanced triumphantly at Mrs. Ruyler, who was stouter. "You mean, Mary,
that one has to be thin for this treatment to be a success?"

"That I cannot say. I really do not know what the treatment would do to
a stout woman of middle or old age. The internal change would be the
same, but, although additional flesh can be kept down by medicaments and
diet, I doubt if there would be a complete restoration of the outlines of
face and neck. A woman of sixty, with sagging flesh and distended skin,
might once more look forty, if the treatment were successful, but hardly
as young as I do. I was particularly fortunate in having withered.
Still, I cannot say. As I told you, many women of all ages and sizes
took the treatment while I was in Vienna. But they are too scattered for
me at least to obtain any data on the results. I knew none of them
personally and I was too busy to seek them out and compare notes. . . .
But with me----" She leaned back and lit a cigarette, looking over her
audience with mischievous eyes. "With me it has been a complete
success--mentally, physically----"

"Yes, and how long will it last?" shot out Mrs. Ruyler. She was as
strong as a horse and as alert mentally as she had ever been, and her
complete indifference to rejuvenation in any of its forms gave her a
feeling of superior contempt for all those European women who had swarmed
to Vienna like greedy flies at the scent of molasses--no doubt to undergo
terrible torments that Mary Zattiany would not admit. But her objective
curiosity on the subject of youth was insatiable and she read everything
that appeared in the newspapers and magazines about it, not neglecting
the advertisements. If she had sent for a facial masseuse she would have
felt that she had planted a worm at the root of the family tree, but the
subject was unaccountably interesting.

Mary Zattiany, who understood her complex perfectly, shrugged her
graceful shoulders. "It is too soon to reply with assurance. The method
was only discovered some six years ago. But the eminent biologists who
have given profound study to the s