e
looked, Philip declared, positively Burne-Jonesey, and he called her
the Blessed Damosel.

When at last they entered the Studio of the Blaney brother and sister,
Patty blinked several times, before she could collect her senses. It
was very dimly lighted, and a strange, almost stifling sense of
oppression came over her. This was caused by the burning of various
incense sticks and pastilles which gave out a sweet, spicy odour, and
which made a slight haze of smoke. Becoming a little accustomed to the
gloom, Patty discerned her host, amazingly garbed in an Oriental
burnoose and a voluminous silk turban. He took her hand, made a deep
salaam, and kissed her finger-tips with exaggerated ceremony.

"My sister, Alla," he said, "Miss Fairfield."

Patty looked up to see a tall, gaunt woman smiling at her. Miss
Blaney, like her brother, was long, lanky and loose-jointed, and seemed
to desire to accentuate these effects. Her ash-coloured hair was
parted and drawn loosely down to a huge knot at the back of her neck.
A band of gilt filigree was round her head at the temples, and was set
with a huge green stone which rested in the middle of her forehead.
Long barbaric earrings dangled and shook with every movement of her
head, and round her somewhat scrawny neck was coiled an ugly greenish
serpent of some flexible metal formation. For the rest, Miss Blaney
wore a flowing robe of saffron yellow, a most sickly shade, and the
material was frayed and worn as if it had been many times made over.
It hung from her shoulders in billowy folds, and the wearer was
evidently proud of it, for she continually switched its draperies about
and gazed admiringly at them.

"Frightfully glad to see you," this weird creature was saying, and
Patty caught her breath, and murmured, "Oh, thank you. So kind of you
to ask me."

"I feel sure I shall adore you," Miss Blaney went on; "you are
_simpatica_,--yes, absolutely _simpatica_."

"Am I?" and Patty smiled. "And is it nice to be _simpatica_? It
doesn't mean a simpleton, does it?"

"Oh, how droll! My dear, how droll!" and Miss Blaney went off in
contortions of silent laughter. "Just for that, you must call me Alla.
I always want droll people to call me by my first name. And your name
is----"

"Patty."

"Impossible! You can't be named that! Incredible! _Ooh_!"

Alla ended with a half-breathed shriek.

"Oh, well," said Patty, hastily, "my name is really Patricia, though no
one e