the hotel, bearing rugs and other luggage; but the big man
who had helped the lady from the car did not appear. We had seen his
back only, yet the impression lingered in my mind that he was no
servant, but a gentleman, a personage of worldly as well as physical
magnitude.

The lady went toward the desk, then paused, and with an imperious and
impatient little gesture directed one of her maids to untie her thick
blue veil. The knot was loosened with a skilful touch, and the face of
Mrs. Ballantree MacDonald was revealed. For a moment or two we saw it
only in profile, as she talked with the people at the desk, and bade the
elder of her two women write in the visitors' book. Then, as she turned
away to go to the lift, we were favoured with the full blaze of her
celebrated beauty.

It is three years since I saw her last, in America, but she has not
changed, unless to look younger. She might not be a day over
twenty-five, and her figure is as slender, as spirited, and as graceful
as a girl's. She advanced more or less in our direction, though without
seeing us, and her walk was peculiarly attractive--slightly
self-conscious and suggestive of the actress, perhaps, but light as a
smoke wreath. If she makes up off the stage, she is so skilful that she
beats Nature at Nature's own game. Her complexion, with the gray-blue
veil flowing in folds on either side her face, looked pearly, and the
rippling lines of her red hair glittered like new copper. It was
impossible she should not know that every one in the big hall was gazing
at her; but such was her self-control, gained in long experience as a
beauty and popular favourite, that she seemed not to see any one. Hers
was not a morose remoteness, however. That might have offended admirers
and kept money out of the theatre. It was the radiant unawareness of a
passing sunbeam.

A few more seconds and this charming figure, framed in floating clouds
of chiffon, would have reached the door of the lift, to be wafted out of
sight like a pantomime fairy. But Barrie could no longer be held within
bounds, for the great moment of her life had come. She darted away from
us, her figure as tall, more youthful, more willowy, and more charming
than the other, though singularly like in movement and in outline. The
resemblance between the beautiful woman and the beautiful girl produced
the effect of contrast, and ruthlessly dug a chasm of years between
them. Suddenly, as they stood face to face, Mrs