If a man wants to have another sweetheart,
what can we do? It is like the railway. The train comes in and goes and
the little station must wait until another train comes."

"And you are going to wait for another train? You were fond of him and
can speak like that?"

"I was fond of him," Mimi said. "But I am not silly enough to believe
it will last just because I wanted it to last. I knew when it started
that I should have to give him up some day. I have learned that. I shall
forget him--and hope that he and you will be happy."

Mimi's tears came unrestrainedly now, and as she looked for her
handkerchief Elsa picked up Millar's weeping satchel, where he had left
it on the table, and gave it to the model. Mimi dabbed vigorously at her
streaming eyes.

"I am glad that I met you here," she said when she could control her
voice. "I shall be clever to-day and not see him at all. I will go away
now and never come back. What time is it?"

"It is 3 o'clock," Elsa said, looking at her watch.

"Then I must go. Another artist in the next block expects me to pose for
him, and his laundress comes at 3. He is very clever."

She stood up and looked around the room at the things on the walls--her
own pictures--the place that seemed like home to her. She sobbed as she
started toward the door.

"Good-by, miss," she said.

Elsa looked after her as she went out. Then she looked around the room
and was seized with panic.

"Mimi! Mimi!" she called out.

The model did not return. Elsa seized her hat and fled, just as Millar
entered from the adjoining room. His chuckle of Satanic amusement
reached her as she hurried from the house.

CHAPTER XII

Millar's sardonic face was wreathed in smiles as he looked after the two
young girls, each of whom carried from his hateful presence a bruised
heart.

With Mimi it was the fate of a child of the underworld--something to
which she was pathetically resigned. With her there was no struggle. She
knew that when she ceased to charm she must go her way and find another
man; a master rather than a sweetheart.

Elsa could not have told herself what fear made her fly from the studio
after Mimi, but she feared that she was also doomed to give up the hope
of her heart. It was her first cruel disappointment, but Mimi had made
her see that she was beaten, and, in spite of her earlier resolution to
fight, she saw that fighting would bring only unhappiness. She hurried
to her waiting carriag