being Louis can
be."

She laughed, watching him under the dark lashes, charming mouth mocking
him in every curve.

"Do you think you're likely to be lonely to-night?" he asked, surprised
at the slight acceleration of his pulses.

"No, I don't. Besides, you'd be only the great god Kelly to me this
evening. Besides that I'm going to dinner with Querida, and afterward
we're going to see the 'Joy of the Town' at the Folly Theatre."

"I didn't know," he said, curtly. For a few moments he sat there,
looking interestedly at a familiar door-knob. Then rising: "Do you feel
all right for posing?"

"Yes."

"Alors--"

"Allons, mon dieu!" she laughed.

Work began. She thought, watching him with sudden and unexpected
shyness, that he seemed even more aloof, more preoccupied, more worried,
more intent than before. In this new phase the man she had known as a
friend was now entirely gone, vanished! Here stood an utter stranger,
very human, very determined, very deeply perplexed, very much in
earnest. Everything about this man was unknown to her. There seemed to
be nothing about him that particularly appealed to her confidence,
either; yet the very uncertainty was interesting her now--intensely.

This other phase of his dual personality had been so completely a
surprise that, captivated, curious, she could keep neither her gaze from
him nor her thoughts. Was it that she was going to miss in him the other
charm, lose the delight in his speech, his impersonal and kindly manner,
miss the comfortable security she had enjoyed with him, perhaps after
some half gay, half sentimental conflict with lesser men?

What was she to expect from this brand-new incarnation of Louis
Neville? The delightful indifference, fascinating absent-mindedness and
personal neglect of the other phase? Would he be god enough to be less
to her, now? Man enough to be more than other men? For a moment she had
a little shrinking, a miniature panic lest this man turn too much like
other men. But she let her eyes rest on him, and knew he would not.
Whatever Protean changes might yet be reserved for her to witness, she
came to the conclusion that this man was a man apart, different, and
would not disappoint her no matter what he turned into.

She thought to herself: "If I want Kelly to lean on, he'll surely
appear, god-like, impersonally nice, and kindly as ever; if I want Louis
to torment and provoke and flirt with--a little--a very little--I'm
quite sure h