ded by a restaurant dinner.

"Mercy! I had forgotten. Hurry! little Jack--quick!" She wanted flowers,
a bouquet, a dozen forgotten trifles: and the child, whose life had
always been made up of just such trifles, and who felt as much as his
mother the subtile charm of these elegances, followed her in high glee,
delighted by the idea of the fete that he was not to see. The toilette
of his mother always interested him, and he fully appreciated the
admiration her beauty excited as they went through the streets and into
the various shops.

"Exquisite! exquisite! Yes, you may send it to me--Boulevard Haussmann."

Madame de Barancy tossed down her card, and went out, talking gayly to
Jack of the beauty of her purchases. Suddenly she assumed a graver air.
"Remember, Jack, what I say. Do not tell our good friend that I went to
this ball; it is a great secret, It is five o'clock. How Constant will
scold!"

She was not mistaken.

Her maid, a tall, stout person of forty years, ugly and masculine,
rushed toward Ida as she entered the house.

"The costume is here. There is no sense in being so late. Madame will
not be ready in season. No one could make her toilette in such a little
while."

"Don't scold, Constant. If you only knew what had happened. Look!" and
she pointed to Jack.

The factotum seemed utterly out of patience. "What! Master Jack back
again! That is very naughty, sir, after all you promised. The police
will have to come and take you to school; your mother is too good."

"No, no, it was not he. The priest would not have him. Do you
understand? They insulted me!" Whereupon she began to cry again, and to
ask of heaven why she was so unhappy. What with the meringues and the
nougat, the wine and the heat of the room, she soon felt very ill.
She was carried to her bed; salts and ether were hastily sought.
Mademoiselle Constant acquitted herself with the propriety of a woman
who is no stranger to such scenes, went in and out of the room, opened
and shut wardrobes, with a certain self-possession that seemed to
say, "This will soon pass off." But she did not perform her duties in
silence.

"What folly it was to take this child to the Fathers! As if it was a
place for him in his position! It would not have been done certainly,
had I been consulted. I would engage to find a place for this boy at
very short notice."

Jack, terrified at seeing his mother so ill, had seated himself on the
edge of the bed; where, looki