ain at the astonishing picture.

"Do you mean," she began, "that there is a living original?"

Olaf van Noord bowed absently, and left her side to greet one who at
that moment entered the studio. Something magnetic in the personality
of the newcomer drew all eyes from the canvas to the figure on the
threshold. The artist was removing garish tiger skin furs from the
shoulders of the girl--for the new arrival was a girl, a Eurasian girl.

She wore a tiger skin motor-coat, and a little, close-fitting,
turban-like cap of the same. The coat removed, she stood revealed in a
clinging gown of silk; and her feet were shod in little amber colored
slippers with green buckles. The bodice of her dress opened in a
surprising V, displaying the satin texture of her neck and shoulders,
and enhancing the barbaric character of her appearance. Her jet black
hair was confined by no band or comb, but protruded Bishareen-like
around the shapely head. Without doubt, this was the Lady of the
Poppies--the original of the picture.

"Dear friends," said Olaf van Noord, taking the girl's hand, and walking
into the studio, "permit me to present my model!"

Following, came a slightly built man who carried himself with a
stoop; an olive faced man, who squinted frightfully, and who dressed
immaculately.

"What a most... EXTRAORDINARY-looking creature!" whispered Denise Ryland
to Helen. "She has undoubted attractions of... a hellish sort... if I
may use... the term."

"She is the strangest looking girl I have ever seen in my life," replied
Helen, who found herself unable to turn her eyes away from Olaf van
Noord's model. "Surely she is not a professional model!"

The chatty reporter (his name was Crockett) confided to Helen Cumberly:

"She is not exactly a professional model, I think, Miss Cumberly, but
she is one of the van Noord set, and is often to be seen in the more
exclusive restaurants, and sometimes in the Cafe Royal."

"She is possibly a member of the theatrical profession?"

"I think not. She is the only really strange figure (if we exclude Olaf)
in this group of poseurs. She is half Burmese, I believe, and a native
of Moulmein."

"Most EXTRAORDINARY creature!" muttered Denise Ryland, focussing upon
the Eurasian her gold rimmed glasses--"MOST extraordinary." She glanced
around at the company in general. "I really begin to feel... more and
more as though I were... in a private lunatic... asylum. That picture...
beyond doubt is the