uliar dim shade of blue that fell in
free, straight folds about her, confined by a loose silver girdle round
the waist. It clothed her beautiful body in a way that satisfied the
soul of the artist who stood and looked at her, uttering light words
about the cat and kittens and inaugurating a conversation that
immediately put them at ease.

It was evident that she was glad to see him. She told him so at once.
Her husband, she said, had wanted her to go to the theatre, but she
had been every night for so long that she was tired of it, and had
just decided to stay at home. Was Mr. Dallas then such an infatuated
theatre-goer? Noel asked. Oh, yes, he always wanted to go every night,
she said. It seemed to be a confirmed habit with him, and she was sorry
to say she did not care for it much, though she usually went with him.
Noel knew that the season was not fairly opened yet, and reflecting upon
the bills advertised at the various theatres, he could but wonder at the
man's choice of entertainments.

Presently Dallas entered and greeted him civilly, though with his usual
apathetic manner, and said he was glad he had come in, as he could keep
Mrs. Dallas company, as he was going to the theatre. Mrs. Dallas looked
a little surprised at this announcement and suggested his postponing the
theatre, so that he might not miss Mr. Noel's visit, but he answered
that Mr. Noel he knew would excuse him, and turned to leave the room.
As he did so he stepped on one of the kittens which cried out pitifully.
It had been an accident, of course, but he might have shown some
compunction, which he utterly failed to do. The little creature hopped
away on three feet, and Mrs. Dallas, with pretty foreign words of pity,
followed it and brought it to the fireside where she sat down with it on
her lap, and stroked and soothed it, laying the wounded little paw
against her lips and making, what seemed to Noel, munificent atonement
for the injury inflicted by her husband.

As the kitten settled down contentedly purring in its mistress' silken
lap, the front door closed behind Mr. Dallas, and turning to his
hostess, Noel for the first time addressed her in her native tongue,
asking the abrupt question, "How are you?"

She lifted her golden eyes to his a moment, and then dropped them under
the scrutiny of his gaze, which he felt, the next instant, to have been
inconsiderate.

"A little homesick, I dare say," he went on, looking down at the kitten,
"that