irable a sister."

"Be serious, Felix. You forget that I am your elder."

"With a sister, then, so elderly!" rejoined Felix, laughing. "I hoped we
had left seriousness in Europe."

"I fancy you will find it here. Remember that you are nearly thirty
years old, and that you are nothing but an obscure Bohemian--a penniless
correspondent of an illustrated newspaper."

"Obscure as much as you please, but not so much of a Bohemian as you
think. And not at all penniless! I have a hundred pounds in my pocket.
I have an engagement to make fifty sketches, and I mean to paint the
portraits of all our cousins, and of all their cousins, at a hundred
dollars a head."

"You are not ambitious," said Eugenia.

"You are, dear Baroness," the young man replied.

The Baroness was silent a moment, looking out at the sleet-darkened
grave-yard and the bumping horse-cars. "Yes, I am ambitious," she said
at last. "And my ambition has brought me to this dreadful place!" She
glanced about her--the room had a certain vulgar nudity; the bed and the
window were curtainless--and she gave a little passionate sigh. "Poor
old ambition!" she exclaimed. Then she flung herself down upon a sofa
which stood near against the wall, and covered her face with her hands.

Her brother went on with his drawing, rapidly and skillfully; after some
moments he sat down beside her and showed her his sketch. "Now, don't
you think that 's pretty good for an obscure Bohemian?" he asked. "I
have knocked off another fifty francs."

Eugenia glanced at the little picture as he laid it on her lap. "Yes,
it is very clever," she said. And in a moment she added, "Do you suppose
our cousins do that?"

"Do what?"

"Get into those things, and look like that."

Felix meditated awhile. "I really can't say. It will be interesting to
discover."

"Oh, the rich people can't!" said the Baroness.

"Are you very sure they are rich?" asked Felix, lightly.

His sister slowly turned in her place, looking at him. "Heavenly
powers!" she murmured. "You have a way of bringing out things!"

"It will certainly be much pleasanter if they are rich," Felix declared.

"Do you suppose if I had not known they were rich I would ever have
come?"

The young man met his sister's somewhat peremptory eye with his bright,
contented glance. "Yes, it certainly will be pleasanter," he repeated.

"That is all I expect of them," said the Baroness. "I don't count upon
their being clever or friendl