chin and oblique eyes, small and sparkling,
pictured to the life a young lady of Yeddo, strolling amidst the
perfume of tea and benzoin. And she lingered there hesitatingly,
with all the sickly languor of a tropical flower pining for the land
of its birth.

Behind her, however, appeared Helene. Both, in thus suddenly passing
from the dull daylight of the street into the brilliant glare of the
wax candles, blinked their eyes as though blinded, while their faces
were irradiated with smiles. The rush of warm air and the perfumes,
the scent of violets rising above all else, almost stifled them, and
brought a flush of red to their cheeks. Each guest, on passing the
doorway, wore a similar air of surprise and hesitancy.

"Why, Lucien! where are you?" exclaimed Madame Deberle.

The boy had not caught sight of Jeanne. But now he rushed forward and
seized her arm, forgetting to make his bow. And they were so dainty,
so loving, the little marquis in his flowered coat, and the Japanese
maiden in her purple embroidered gown, that they might have been taken
for two statuettes of Dresden china, daintily gilded and painted, into
which life had been suddenly infused.

"You know, I was waiting for you," whispered Lucien. "Oh, it is so
nasty to give everybody my arm! Of course, we'll keep beside each
other, eh?"

And he sat himself down with her in the first row of chairs, wholly
oblivious of his duties as host.

"Oh, I was so uneasy!" purred Juliette into Helene's ear. "I was
beginning to fear that Jeanne had been taken ill."

Helene proffered apology; dressing children, said she, meant endless
labor. She was still standing in a corner of the drawing-room, one of
a cluster of ladies, when her heart told her that the doctor was
approaching behind her. He was making his way from behind the red
curtain, beneath which he had dived to give some final instructions.
But suddenly he came to a standstill. He, too, had divined her
presence, though she had not yet turned her head. Attired in a dress
of black grenadine, she had never appeared more queenly in her beauty;
and a thrill passed through him as he breathed the cool air which she
had brought with her from outside, and wafted from her shoulders and
arms, gleaming white under their transparent covering.

"Henri has no eyes for anybody," exclaimed Pauline, with a laugh. "Ah,
good-day, Henri!"

Thereupon he advanced towards the group of ladies, with a courteous
greeting. Mademoise