father's name; he came originally of
the de la Tours, but his branch of the family had gone down, somehow.
Even the name was spelled differently, in the common way. But they lived
in the same neighbourhood--that is how it all came about."

She paused, and gave a sigh like a faint moan. But Max was silent. He
could spare her nothing. She must go on to the end--if the end were
death. For there was somebody else, somewhere, who had to be put in his
place--the place he had thought was his.

"It was really because I loved Jack--too much," the veiled woman still
fretfully excused herself. "I should have been nobody, except for my
looks. He married me for my looks, because I was strong and tall and
fine, as a girl should be. He thought I could give him a splendid heir.
You know how things are arranged in this family. The property goes from
father to son, or a daughter, if there's no son. But they all pray for
sons. The Dorans want to carry on the name they're so proud of--just as
you have been proud! The wife of a Doran's important only if she's
beautiful, or if she has a son. I wanted to be important for both
reasons. Oh, how I wanted it!

"Jack took me to England for our honeymoon, and then to France. We
hadn't been in Paris long before I knew I was going to have a child.
Jack was so happy! He was sure it would be a boy--the most gorgeous boy
ever born. How I remember the day I told him, and he said that! But all
the time I had the presentiment it would be a girl. I felt guilty,
miserable, when Jack talked about the baby.... The doctors said it would
be safer for me not to have a sea voyage, so we decided to stop in
France till after the child came. We stayed in Paris at first, and Jack
and I used to go to the Louvre to see beautiful pictures and
statues--for the 'sake of the boy.'

"When the Salon opened we went there, and I saw a painting every one was
talking about--by a new artist. It was called 'Bella Donna,' just a
woman's head and shoulders. Max, _she was like me_! But she was
horrible, wicked--somehow deformed, though you couldn't see how. You
only felt it. And besides being like me, she was like a lynx. There was
one in the Zoo in London, with just her expression. Jack and I saw it
together, and he laughed, and said now he knew who my first ancestress
was. He didn't say anything about my looking like 'Bella Donna,' but I
knew he must have thought it. He got me away from the picture as soon as
he could, but I cou