used to gentlemen's society," explained the woman who
was pulling on the stockings.

"I see," said Van Bibber. He did not know exactly what to say next.
And yet he wanted to talk to the child very much, so much more than he
generally wanted to talk to most young women, who showed no hesitation
in talking to him. With them he had no difficulty whatsoever. There
was a doll lying on the top of a chest near them, and he picked this up
and surveyed it critically. "Is this your doll?" he asked.

"No," said Madeline, pointing to one of the children, who was much
taller than herself; "it's 'at 'ittle durl's. My doll he's dead."

"Dear me!" said Van Bibber. He made a mental note to get a live one in
the morning, and then he said: "That's very sad. But dead dolls do
come to life."

The little girl looked up at him, and surveyed him intently and
critically, and then smiled, with the dimples showing, as much as to
say that she understood him and approved of him entirely. Van Bibber
answered this sign language by taking Madeline's hand in his and asking
her how she liked being a great actress, and how soon she would begin
to storm because THAT photographer hadn't sent the proofs. The young
woman understood this, and deigned to smile at it, but Madeline yawned
a very polite and sleepy yawn, and closed her eyes. Van Bibber moved
up closer, and she leaned over until her bare shoulder touched his arm,
and while the woman buttoned on her absurdly small shoes, she let her
curly head fall on his elbow and rest there. Any number of people had
shown confidence in Van Bibber--not in that form exactly, but in the
same spirit--and though he was used to being trusted, he felt a sharp
thrill of pleasure at the touch of the child's head on his arm, and in
the warm clasp of her fingers around his. And he was conscious of a
keen sense of pity and sorrow for her rising in him, which he crushed
by thinking that it was entirely wasted, and that the child was
probably perfectly and ignorantly happy.

"Look at that, now," said the wardrobe woman, catching sight of the
child's closed eyelids; "just look at the rest of the little dears, all
that excited they can't stand still to get their hats on, and she just
as unconcerned as you please, and after making the hit of the piece,
too."

"She's not used to it, you see," said the young woman, knowingly; "she
don't know what it means. It's just that much play to her."

This last was said w