ace-loving Molly drew Mrs. Brown's arm through her
own and gently pressing it, led her upstairs.

"Thank you, my dear, I was on the verge of attacking the dragon, and
since we are to be here two weeks, I must not do anything to make it
more difficult. But did you ever see anyone more impertinent?" asked
Mrs. Brown, still sniffing the battle from afar.

"Never," sympathized Judy. "I wish you had said your say. I believe you
could get ahead of the fabulous monster in open combat. She is, after
all, a very flabby, fabulous monster and one prick would do for her."

CHAPTER VI.

LA MARQUISE.

"_La Marquise d'Ochte_ is attending _Madame Brune_ in the _salon au
cinquieme etage_," announced a very excited little housemaid, who was
supposed to speak English for the benefit of the American pensionnaires
at _Maison Pace_. "_Madame Pace_ is some time gone at the _boucher_, not
expecting callers at so early _heur_. _La Marquise_ demanded not _Madame
Pace_; but said very _distinctment 'Madame Brune et sa fille'_."

"Very well, Alphonsine, thank you so much. My daughter and I will come
down immediately," said Mrs. Brown, smiling at the agitation of the
little maid. Mrs. Pace had evidently given her servants to understand
the importance her pension gained from the visits of a marchioness.

"Milly, Milly, how I have longed to see you," and the Marquise d'Ochte
rose from her seat and clasped her one-time friend and beloved cousin in
a warm embrace. "And this is your daughter? Goodness, child, you look
like me,--at least, like me when I was young!"

Molly knew in the first second of greeting that she was going to like
this cousin, and Mrs. Brown was delighted to see in the marchioness the
same Sally Bolling of thirty years ago. She was like Molly in a way, but
it was hard to realize that Molly could ever be quite so buxom as this
middle-aged cousin. She was a very large woman with an excellent figure
for her weight, and hair a little darker than Molly's with no silver
threads showing so far.

"I pull 'em out if they dare to so much as show their noses. They say
forty will come in when you pull out one, but then I'll make my maid
pull out forty, if it kills me in the pulling," she declared when Mrs.
Brown remarked on it in the course of their inventory of each other. "My
Jean declares he got caught in my hair and could not get away, and I
mean still to keep him."

"I am afraid I would snatch myself bald-headed if I tried