saw
visions. She was the Mariposa floating over a field of flowers, scarlet
and white poppies, opening and closing its gorgeous wings in the hot
sunshine; she was a snow-flake whirled from the heart of a winter storm;
she was an orchid swaying in the breeze; she was a thistledown drifting
through the grasses.

Then, at the height of her spells she stopped and laughingly cast herself
into a chair.

"Oh!" Kitty was breathless with admiration. "Oh, why, why, when you can
dance like that, do you tell fortunes?"

"There's a reason," Ydo quoted, with a little toss of her head toward
Hayden. "That is exactly the answer I made your cousin once before. And,
oh, senor, apropos of that reason, I have a conference arranged for you
to-morrow afternoon at four o'clock at my apartment. I almost forgot to
tell you. I meant to have telephoned."

Hayden's face flushed with pleasure. "Really?" he cried. "You really have
the people together. Oh," with a long sigh, "it is good news. Suspense
does wear on me, senorita." He spoke half humorously, but with an
underlying seriousness.

"It will soon be over," encouraged Ydo. "Then, until Tuesday night, ten
days hence, _au revoir_, madame; and until to-morrow at four o'clock, _au
revoir_, senor. Good luck for ever be on this house! In it I have
forgotten temporarily my wanderlust. Good-by."

CHAPTER XII

With his heart high with hope, Hayden lost no time in taking his way to
Ydo's apartment the next afternoon. It was Sunday, a day on which she
received no clients, and the maid showed him into neither the
consulting- nor reception-rooms, but in a small library beyond them which
was evidently a part of her private suite.

In coloring the room suggested the soft wood tones that Ydo loved, greens
and browns and russets harmoniously blended. The walls were lined with
book-cases, crowded with books, a great and solacing company: Montaigne,
Kipling, Emerson, Loti, Kant, Cervantes. These caught Hayden's eye as he
took the chair Mademoiselle Mariposa indicated. There were roses, deep
red roses in tall vases, and the breeze from the half-opened window blew
their fragrance in delicious gusts about the room.

"'The rose-wind blowing from the South,'" quoted Hayden smilingly as he
clasped the hand Ydo extended to him from the depths of her chair. Then,
clapping his hand to his heart, he bowed exaggeratedly before her.
"Senorita, I throw my heart at your feet."

"It did not touch the grou