only a short distance from the Grand Hotel. Arriving there,
Louise suggested that my friend should drive Estelle home and return to
take her to the other ball to which she was going. This we, of course,
agreed to, and Louise invited me to her apartments to have a glass of
champagne while she placed herself in the hands of her maid to change her
costume and we awaited the arrival of my friend and the carriage. They
were delightful apartments--such as one expects Parisiennes of exquisite
taste to dwell in. The dining-room was a work of art in white and gold.
Sky-blue draperies, deeply embroidered in Japanese fashion, with birds of
the air and fishes of the seas in such bewildering colour as only the
Japanese know how to depict. Louise's dress at the ball was in the same
sky-blue tone, and--as she stood in her dining-room taking a glass of
champagne before handing herself over to the tender mercies of her
maid--she looked almost heavenly. Anyway, so any man would have thought
if he had been in my place, and of my age, during those precious
moments.

But is there not a proverb that says: "All that glitters is not gold"? It
applies not only to physical but also to mental condition. My mental
condition was one of happiness. Louise was beautiful. Louise was kind,
and the world was good and so was the champagne. But Nemesis was not far
off.

Presently Louise returned to me. She wished for a cigarette and a glass
of champagne before her maid robed her for her second ball. Just clad in
the filmiest and most fetching of wraps (I think that is the word), she
looked as bewitching as if she had just floated down from the abodes of
bliss and beauty. She had just sipped her glass of champagne and lit her
cigarette, and leaned on the arm of the arm-chair in which I was sitting,
when we heard the hall-door open and someone enter.

"Hush!" she said; "it is Gustave! Leave him to me and say little."

"Louise, ma cherie, ou etes vous?"

It was Gustave. He drew apart the silken curtains separating the hall
from the dining-room. "Voila, je suis retourne. Mais ... mon Dieu!"

As the curtains were drawn Louise rose from the arm of the chair (I at
once rose also), and in the sweetest tones, speaking in English, Louise
said: "My dear Gustave. What a pleasant surprise. No? Oh, yes, for me! I
thought you would not return till the day after to-morrow. So! No? Let me
introduce to you my friend, an English officer. He has been so polite to
me at