upon some sort of dais, and
I am sure that I should not have been surprised had there been some
artificial arrangement of lights as in a theatre to add effectiveness to
the figure.

"I followed Regnier through several rooms without raising my eyes.
Presently he paused and said, 'My daughter.'

"Thrilling with the premonition of a vision of imperious or melting
loveliness which should compel my homage by its mere aspect, I raised
my eyes to find myself facing a plain-featured, plainly dressed young
woman, not ill-looking certainly, but destitute of a single trait
striking enough to have won a second glance from me had I met her on the
street.

"Her father need not have told me of her reluctance to assume the part
his wishes had imposed upon her. For the fraction of an instant only, a
pair of black eyes had met mine, and then she had bent her face as low
as she could. The downcast head, the burning cheeks, the quick heaving
of the breast, the pendent arms, with tensely interlacing fingers and
palms turned downward, all told the story of a shy and sensitive girl
submitting from a sense of duty to a painful ordeal.

"The sudden and complete wreck of all my preconceptions as to her
appearance, as well as the accessories of the scene, left me for a few
moments fairly dazed. Not only were my highly wrought expectations as
to the present interview brought to humiliating discomfiture, but the
influence of the disillusionment instantly retroacted with the effect
of making the entire noble and romantic cult which had led up to this
unlucky confrontation seem a mere farrago of extravagant and baseless
sentiment. What on earth had Regnier been thinking of, to plan
deliberately a situation calculated to turn a cherished sentiment into
ridicule? If he had seriously thought his daughter capable of supporting
the role he had assigned her, had there ever been a like case of
parental fatuity?

"But even as I indignantly asked myself this question, I saw a great
light, and recognized that the trouble was neither with Regnier's
fatuity nor with his daughter's lack of charms, but with myself, and
a most unworthy misconception into which I had fallen as to the whole
object and purport of this interview. What had the beauty or the lack of
beauty of this girl to do with the present occasion? I was not here to
render homage to her for the beauty of her sex, but for its perpetual
consecration and everlasting martyrdom to my race. The revuls