rse, suspect this, but he saw that here, at least, was a vivid and
spontaneous feeling apart from her child, as she bent above the mass of
rich color.

"Oh, how good they are!" she said. "I seem to want to eat them, and
smell them and look at them all at once."

She held them off and regarded them enjoyingly a moment and then raised
them to her face again, and smelled them with audible little sniffs,
even nibbling the red leaves with her white teeth, as she looked at Noel
over them and smiled. He went, delighted, and brought a basket of
luscious grapes which he held out to her. She took a large bunch, and
holding it by the stem began to pick the grapes off one by one and eat
them enjoyingly. They were pale green in color, and he noted the effect
of her clear pink nails against them and the beautiful curves of the
long fingers that held the stem. He poured out some water in a beautiful
old Venetian goblet and offered it to her. There was a bit of ice in it,
which she tinkled against the side with the delight of a child before
she drank it.

"I am sure I am dreaming, perfectly sure," she said seriously. "I only
hope I won't wake until I have finished this bunch of grapes."

Then she lifted the glass to her mouth, tilting it until she had got the
ice, which she chewed up noisily with her sharp little teeth. Noel felt
a keen delight to see that she was letting herself be gay for a brief
moment, but he seemed to see into the sadness back of it more plainly
than ever.

"Oh, I am very happy," she said, suddenly throwing herself into a chair
where she could see her sleeping child. "My baby is better--a great
deal better; he has smiled twice, and is sleeping so peacefully! Yes,
I am happy!--and yet the other feeling--the one that has been with me
always lately--is here too. It is very strange that one can be at the
same time very happy and also the most miserable woman in the world!
Does this sound like craziness? I am not crazy. There are some
people--did you know it?--who can't go crazy!--who never would, no
matter what happened to them! A doctor told me that, and I believe it.
He says it is constitutional or inherited or something like that--a
physical thing--having a very strong brain that couldn't be upset!"

She rose now, and insisted that the sitting should begin. Noel saw again
the unforgotten outline of her beautiful head, with its rippling dark
hair drawn backward into that low knot behind.

It was in silence t