l, but not too tall for perfect grace; and
slender, but with the slenderness of some young pictured goddess. She
was dark, too, but with a pale clear skin that was more lovely than any
dead blonde whiteness; and to crown her charms, she had long rippling
hair of jet black hue that was parted from her brow and fell like a veil
to her delicate arched feet, and through which the serious, darkly--
glowing eyes looked straight at the wondering faces before her.

The pause she made before entering was brief, but not so brief that
every eye there had not scanned enviously and wonderingly her perfect
beauty--from the clear-cut, exquisite face and bare, beautifully--shaped
arms, to the graceful ankles, gleaming white as sculptured marble
through the veiling hair.

Mrs Jefferson first recovered speech.

"Who is she?" she whispered eagerly. "Not at our hotel I think. Looks
like a walking advertisement of a new hair restorer. She'd be a fortune
to them if she'd have her photograph taken so!"

The newcomer meanwhile advanced and took one of the chairs near Mrs
Jefferson. That lady suffered strongly from the curiosity that is
characteristic of her admirable nation. She re-seated herself for the
purpose of studying the strange vision, and, not being in the least
degree afflicted with English reticence, she set the ball of
conversation going by an immediate remark:

"Had any of these baths before?"

The person addressed looked at her with grave and serious eyes.

"No," she said; and her voice was singularly clear and sweet, but with
something foreign in the slow accentuation of words. "I only arrived at
this hotel last night."

"Oh!" said Mrs Jefferson, "is that so? I thought I hadn't seen you
before. Come for your health?"

"Yes," said the stranger, accepting a glass of water from the attendant,
who had just come forward.

"Not gout, I suppose?" suggested Mrs Jefferson, conscious that there
were arched feet in the world even more exquisite in shape and size than
her own.

"Gout! Oh, no!" said the stranger, smiling faintly. "They say my
nerves are not strong. I sleep badly, I am easily startled, and easily
fatigued." She paused a moment, and one delicate hand, glittering with
rings, pushed back the dark weight of rippling hair from her brow. "I
have had a great mental shock," she said, quietly. "Such things require
time... one cannot easily forget..."

Her eyes had grown dreamy and abstracted. The hand th