presentation of it--the up-to-date Hades. They've got a railway bridge
now across the Styx, and Charon has a gold band around his cap, and this
might be the arrival platform of the damned souls."

"You forget," said I, "that it is the arrival platform of Carlotta."

He threw back his head and laughed boyishly.

"Well, consider it the Golden Gate terminus of the 'Earth, Hades
and Olympus Railway' if you like. I'm off on a branch line to meet a
beauteous duchessa at Ealing--oh, an authentic one, I assure you."

"Why should I doubt it?" said I.

Stenson, whom I had brought to look after Carlotta's luggage, came up
and touched his hat.

"Train just signalled, sir."

Pasquale put out his hand after another glance at his watch.

"I am sorry I cannot wait to greet the fair one. I'll drop in soon
and pay my respects. I am only just back in London, you know. _A
rivederci._"

He waved me farewell and hurried off. The arrival of the train, the
exuberance of Carlotta, the joy of having her sidle up against me once
more in the cab while she poured out her story, and the subsequent
gaiety of the evening banished Pasquale from my mind. But it is odd that
I should have met him at Paddington.

We parted on the landing to dress for dinner. A moment afterwards there
was a beating at my door. I opened it to behold Carlotta, in a glow of
wondering delight, brandishing a silver-backed brush in one hand and the
hand-mirror in the other.

"Oh, my darling Seer Marcous! For me? All that for me?"

"No. It is for Antoinette," said I.

"Oh-h!"

She laughed and pulled me by the arm into her room and shut the door.

"Oh, everything is beautiful, beautiful, and I shall die if I do not
kiss you."

"You must be kept alive at all hazards," I laughed; and this time I did
not reject her. But it was a child around whom my arms closed. An
inner flash, accompanied by a spasm of pain, revealed it, and changed a
passionate desire to gentleness.

"There," said I, after she had released herself and flown to open the
drawers of the new toilette table, where lay some odds and ends of
jewelry I had purchased for her. "You have been saved from extinction.
The next deadly peril is hunger. I give you a quarter of an hour."

She came down to dinner in a low-necked frock, wearing the necklace
and bangle; and, child that she is, in her hand she carried the
silver-backed mirror. I believe she has taken it to bed with her, as
a seven-year-old does its