rted the dowager.

"But to what use then all these accomplishments, all this pursuit of
knowledge? Does she mean to hide it all in some convent at last?"

"I would look for her rather among some savage tribes, doing
missionary work."

"Yes, making them acquainted with Voltaire," he said, laughingly. "But
you are to be envied, god-mother, in having her all to yourself; she
adores you!"

The dark old face flushed slightly, and the keen eyes softened with
pleasure.

"It was Alain's choice, and it was a good one," she said, briefly.
"What of the English people you asked to bring today?"

"They are not English; one is American and one is Irish."

"True; but their Anglo-Saxon makes them all English to me. I hear
there are so many of them in Paris now; Comtesse Biron brings one
today; there is her message, what is the name?"

Dumaresque unfolded the pink sheet, glanced at it and smiled.

"My faith; it is the mother of the young lieutenant whom I asked to
bring, Madame McVeigh. So, she was a school friend of the Comtesse
Helene, eh? That seems strange; still, this Madame McVeigh may be a
French woman transplanted."

"I do not know; but it will be a comfort if she speaks French. The
foreigners of only one language are trying."

* * * * *

Mrs. McVeigh offered no linguistic difficulties to the dowager who was
charmed with her friend's friend.

"But you are surely not the English-Americans of whom we see so much
these days? I cannot think it."

"No, Madame. I am of the French-Americans--the creoles--hence the
speech you are pleased to approve. My people were the Villanennes of
Louisiana."

"Ah! a creole? The creoles come here from the West Indies also--beautiful
women. My daughter has had some as school friends; only this morning she
was explaining to an English caller the difference between a creole and
that personality;" and the dowager waived her hand towards the much
discussed picture of Kora.

The fine face of the American woman took on a trace of haughtiness,
and she glanced at the speaker as though alert to some covert insult.
The unconsciousness in the old face reassured her, though she could
not quite banish coldness from her tones as she replied:

"I should not think such an explanation necessary in enlightened
circles; the creole is so well known as the American born of the Latin
races, while that," with a gesture towards the oriental face on the
canvas, "