?" repeated Esme, with an indolent smile. "Break them, you
mean, don't you?"

"Yes. The breaking, however, is usually mutual. However, that girl
could go far under my direction."

"Yes, she could go as far as hell."

"I mean artistically," remarked Mandel, undisturbed.

"As what, for example?"

"As anything. After all, I _have_ flaire, even if it failed me this
time. But _now_ I see. It's there, in her--what I'm always searching
for."

"What may that be, dear friend?"

"What Westmore calls 'the goods.'"

"And just what are they in her case?" inquired Esme, persistent as a
stinging gnat around a pachyderm.

"I don't know--a voice, maybe; maybe the dramatic instinct--genius as
a dancer--who knows? All that is necessary is to discover it--whatever
it may be--and then direct it."

"Too late, O philanthropic Pasha!" remarked Esme with a slight sneer.
"I'd be very glad to paint her, too, and become good friends with
her--so would many an honest man, now that she's been discovered--but
our friend Barres, yonder, isn't likely to encourage either you or me.
So"--he shrugged, but his languid gaze remained on Dulcie--"so you and
I had better kiss all hope good-bye and toddle home."

* * * * *

Westmore and Thessalie still danced together; Mrs. Helmund and Damaris
were trying new steps in new dances, much interested, indulging in
much merriment. Barres watched them casually, as he conversed with
Dulcie, who, deep in an armchair, never took her eyes from his smiling
face.

"Now, Sweetness," he was saying, "it's early yet, I know, but your
party ought to end, because you are coming to sit for me in the
morning, and you and I ought to get plenty of sleep. If we don't, I
shall have an unsteady hand, and you a pair of sleepy eyes. Come on,
ducky!" He glanced across at the clock:

"It's very early yet, I know," he repeated, "but you and I have had
rather a long day of it. And it's been a very happy one, hasn't it,
Dulcie?"

As she smiled, the youthful soul of her itself seemed to be gazing up
at him out of her enraptured eyes.

"Fine!" he said, with deepest satisfaction. "Now, you'll put your hand
on my arm and we'll go around and say good-night to everybody, and
then I'll take you down stairs."

So she rose and placed her hand lightly on his arm, and together
they made her adieux to everybody, and everybody was cordially
demonstrative in thanking her for her party.

So he took her