chose to ask for that
little statue you gave to my daughter here? So, even on a basis of
dollars and cents alone, as it stands now, you couldn't owe me
anything, don't you see?"

What were they saying to him! Fame, a great sculptor, wealth, a name,
his name, the name of Jean Laparde to be known throughout all France!
Why did it come back to him now, that night of the great storm when he
had stood and watched the scene, rapt and awed, on his way to
Marie-Louise? What strange blasphemy was that, that had been his, that
had envied the _bon Dieu_ the creation of that mighty picture?

"Jean"--Myrna had caught his arm, her head was between her father's now
and his, the soft, bronzed hair for an instant brushed his forehead,
her breath was on his cheek, the grey eyes were smiling into
his--"Jean, wouldn't you like to go to Paris?"

To Paris! She lived in Paris--she was always in Paris--always there.
A day, a week, two weeks, a month he would have seen her here--in Paris
there would be neither days nor weeks nor months to count. The grey
eyes were veiled suddenly, demurely, under the long lashes--but the
little hand on his arm, with a quick, added pressure, remained. His
head swam dizzily--there was an untamed, pulsing elation upon him, a
greed for her that racked and tormented him, a greed to clasp her head
between his hands and lift up her face and press kiss after kiss upon
those eyelids, that mouth, until in the very insatiability of his
passion she should fling her arms around his neck and return his
embrace!

"Yes--_yes_!" he said tensely, fiercely. "_Mon Dieu_, yes--I would
like to go to Paris!"

Her hand fell from his arm.

"Oh, Jean--I'm so glad!"--it seemed as though she were whispering
softly to him.

"Good!" cried Henry Bliss enthusiastically, with a double slap on
Jean's shoulder.

Jean did not speak. It was not easy in an instant to quench that fire
that was devouring him, it was not easy to understand that to-day all
his life was to be changed. He looked at Myrna--the grey eyes were
gaily mocking him, as she nodded her head. He looked at her
father--Henry Bliss was laughing ingenuously like a pleased school-boy.

"I know just how you feel!" said Henry Bliss genially. "All up in the
air--eh? Well, I feel that way myself. It is the most amazing thing
that ever happened! It seems as though there were a dozen questions I
wanted to ask you all at once. And to begin with, those _poupees_ now