other
worlds. It likes the sun and moon; they are all good friends; and it
likes the people who live on it. Maybe it is they instead of the fire
within who keep it warm; or maybe it is warm just from always going, as
we are when we run. We are young, you and I, Mr. Grant, and Leroy, and
your beautiful sister, and the world is young too!" Then she laughed a
strong splendid laugh, which had never had the joy taken out of it
with drawing-room restrictions; and I laughed too, and felt that we had
become very good companions indeed, and found myself warming to the joy
of companionship as I had not since I was a boy at school.

That afternoon the four of us sat at a table in the Casino together. The
Casino, as every one knows, is a place to amuse yourself. If you have a
duty, a mission, or an aspiration, you do not take it there with you,
it would be so obviously out of place; if poverty is ahead of you, you
forget it; if you have brains, you hasten to conceal them; they would be
a serious encumbrance.

There was a bubbling of conversation, a rustle and flutter such as there
always is where there are many women. All the place was gay with flowers
and with gowns as bright as the flowers. I remembered the apprehensions
of my sister, and studied Leroy's wife to see how she fitted into this
highly colored picture. She was the only woman in the room who seemed
to wear draperies. The jaunty slash and cut of fashionable attire were
missing in the long brown folds of cloth that enveloped her figure. I
felt certain that even from Jessica's standpoint she could not be called
a guy. Picturesque she might be, past the point of convention, but she
was not ridiculous.

"Judith takes all this very seriously," said Leroy, laughingly. "I
suppose she would take even Paris seriously."

His wife smiled over at him. "Leroy says I am melancholy," she said,
softly; "but I am always telling him that I am happy. He thinks I am
melancholy because I do not laugh. I got out of the way of it by being
so much alone. You only laugh to let some one else know you are pleased.
When you are alone there is no use in laughing. It would be like
explaining something to yourself."

"You are a philosopher, Judith. Mr. Max Mueller would like to know
you."

"Is he a friend of yours, dear?"

Leroy blushed, and I saw Jessica curl her lip as she noticed the blush.
She laid her hand on Mrs. Brainard's arm.

"Have you always been very much alone?" she inquired.