head to speak, and saw Carlton staring open-eyed at her.
She glanced at him for an instant, as if to assure herself that she did
not know him, and then, turning to her brother, smiled in the same
tolerant, amused way in which she had so often smiled upon Carlton from
the picture.

"I am afraid I had rather go to the Bon March," she said.

One of the waiters stepped in between them, and Carlton asked him for
his bill; but when it came he left it lying on the plate, and sat
staring out into the night between the candles, puffing sharply on his
cigar, and recalling to his memory his first sight of the Princess
Aline of Hohenwald.

That night, as he turned into bed, he gave a comfortable sigh of
content. "I am glad she chose the dressmakers instead of the
pictures," he said.

Mrs. Downs and Miss Morris arrived in Paris on Wednesday, and expressed
their anxiety to have Carlton lunch with them, and to hear him tell of
the progress of his love-affair. There was not much to tell; the
Hohenwalds had come and gone from the hotel as freely as any other
tourists in Paris, but the very lack of ceremony about their movements
was in itself a difficulty. The manner of acquaintance he could make
in the court of the Hotel Meurice with one of the men over a cup of
coffee or a glass of bock would be as readily discontinued as begun,
and for his purpose it would have been much better if the Hohenwalds
had been living in state with a visitors' book and a chamberlain.

On Wednesday evening Carlton took the ladies to the opera, where the
Hohenwalds occupied a box immediately opposite them. Carlton pretended
to be surprised at this fact, but Mrs. Downs doubted his sincerity.

"I saw Nolan talking to their courier to-day," she said, "and I fancy
he asked a few leading questions."

"Well, he didn't learn much if he did," he said. "The fellow only
talks German."

"Ah, then he has been asking questions!" said Miss Morris.

"Well, he does it on his own responsibility," said Carlton, "for I told
him to have nothing to do with servants. He has too much zeal, has
Nolan; I'm afraid of him."

"If you were only half as interested as he is," said Miss Morris, "you
would have known her long ago."

"Long ago?" exclaimed Carlton. "I only saw her four days since."

"She is certainly very beautiful," said Miss Morris, looking across the
auditorium.

"But she isn't there," said Carlton.

"That's the eldest sister; the two other sisters w