or Miss Saunders, miss," he said, in respectful deprecation of her
precipitate behavior.

"Yes, yes; it's all right. Say that she--_is in the studio_." Charmian
spoke in thick gasps. The card was Ludlow's; and between the man's
going and Ludlow's coming, she experienced a succession of sensations
which were, perhaps, the most heroically perfect of any in a career so
much devoted to the emotions. She did not stop to inquire what she
should do after she got Ludlow there, or to ask herself what he was
coming for, a little after nine o'clock in the morning; she simply
waited his approach in an abandon which exhausted the capabilities of
the situation, and left her rather limp and languid when he did appear.
If it had been her own affair she could not have entered into it with
more zeal, more impassioned interest. So far as she reasoned her action
at all, it was intended to keep Ludlow, after she got him there, till
Cornelia should come, for she argued that if she should go for her
Cornelia would suspect something, and she would not come at all.

XXXVIII.

When Ludlow found Charmian and not Cornelia waiting for him, he managed
to get through the formalities of greeting decently, but he had an
intensity which he had the effect of not allowing to relax. He sat down
with visible self-constraint when Charmian invited him to do so.

"Miss Saunders has just gone to her room; she'll be back in a moment."
She added, with wild joy in a fact which veiled the truth, "She is
writing a note."

"Oh!" said Ludlow, and he was so clearly able not to say anything more
that Charmian instantly soared over him in smooth self-possession. "We
were so sorry not to see you last night, Mr. Ludlow. It was a perfect
success, except your not coming, of course."

"Thank you," said Ludlow, "I was--I couldn't come--at the last moment."

"Yes, I understood you intended to come. I do wish you could have seen
Miss Saunders! I don't believe she ever looked lovelier. I wanted her
to go in costume, you know, but she wouldn't, and in fact when I saw
her, I saw that she needn't. She doesn't have to eke herself out, as
some people do."

Ludlow was aware of the opening for a civil speech, but he was quite
helpless to use it. He stared blankly at Charmian, who went on:

"And then, Cornelia is so perfectly truthful, you know, so sincere,
that any sort of disguise would have been out of character with her,
and I'm glad she went simply as herself. We w