ou do that you'll 'ave to pye for it with
every step you tykes; for every step you tykes'll be like walkin' on
sharp blydes. Now, says she, to the little mermaid, do you think it'd
be worth while?"

In Letty's eyes all the stars glittered with her eagerness for the
denouement. "And did she think it was worth while--the little
mermaid?"

"She did; but I'll give madam the tyle to read for 'erself. It's in
the syme little book what Miss Pye used to read out of--up in Mr.
Rash's old nursery."

With the pride of a royal thing conscious of its royalty the car
rolled to the door and stopped. It was the prince's car, while she,
Letty, was a mermaid born in an element different from his, and
encumbered with a fish's tail. She must have shown this in her face,
for Steptoe said, with his fatherly smile:

"Madam may 'ave to walk on blydes--but it'll be in the Prince's
palace."

It'll be in the Prince's palace! Letty repeated this to herself as she
followed him out to the car. Holding the door open for her, Eugene,
who had been told of her romance, touched his cap respectfully. When
she had taken her seat he tucked the robe round her, respectfully
again. Steptoe marked the social difference between them by sitting
beside Eugene.

Rolling down Fifth Avenue Letty was as much at a loss to account for
herself as Elijah must have been in the chariot of fire. She didn't
know where she was going. She was not even able to ask. The succession
of wonders within twenty-four hours blocked the working of her
faculties. She thought of the girls who sneered at her in the
studios--she thought of Judson Flack--and of what they would say if
they were to catch a glimpse of her.

She was not so unsophisticated as to be without some appreciation of
the quarter of New York in which she found herself. She knew it was
the "swell" quarter. She knew that the world's symbols of money and
display were concentrated here, and that in some queer way she, poor
waif, had been given a command of them. One day homeless, friendless,
and penniless, and the next driving down Fifth Avenue in a limousine
which might be called her own!

The motor was slowing down. It was drawing to the curb. They had
reached the place to which Steptoe had directed Eugene. Letty didn't
have to look at the name-plate to know she was where the great stars
got their gowns, and that she was being invited into Margot's!

You know Margot's, of course. A great international house, Mar