iends? I do need one; and I like you so much. You've the
eyes that make a woman easy. There are none like yours in New York."

Valerie laughed, uncertainly.

"Your friends wouldn't care for me," she said. "I don't believe there is
any real place at all for me in this city except among the few men and
women I already know."

"Won't you include me among the number? There is a place for you in my
heart."

Touched and surprised, the girl stood looking at the older woman in
silence.

"May I drive you to your destination?" asked Helene gently.

"You are very kind.... It is Mr. Burleson's studio--if it won't take you
too far out of your way."

By the end of March Valerie had driven with the Countess d'Enver once or
twice; and once or twice had been to see her, and had met, in her
apartment, men and women who were inclined to make a fuss over her--men
like Carrillo and Dennison, and women like Mrs. Hind-Willet and Mrs.
Atherstane. It was her unconventional profession that interested them.

To Neville, recounting her experiences, she said with a patient little
smile:

"It's rather nice to be liked and to have some kind of a place among
people who live in this city. Nobody seems to mind my being a model.
Perhaps they _have_ taken merely a passing fancy to me and are
exhibiting me to each other as a wild thing just captured and being
trained--" She laughed--"but they do it so pleasantly that I don't
mind.... And anyway, the Countess d'Enver is genuine; I am sure of
that."

"A genuine countess?"

"A genuine woman, sincere, lovable, and kind--I am becoming very fond of
her.... Do you mind my abandoning you for an afternoon now and then?
Because it _is_ nice to have as a friend a woman older and more
experienced."

"Does that mean you're going off with her this afternoon?"

"I _was_ going. But I won't if you feel that I'm deserting you."

He laid aside his palette and went over to where she was standing.

"You darling," he said, "go and drive in the Park with your funny little
friend."

"She was going to take me to the Plaza for tea. There are to be some
very nice women there who are interested in the New Idea Home." She
added, shyly, "I have subscribed ten dollars."

He kissed her, lightly, humorously. "And what, sweetheart, may the New
Idea Home be?"

"Oh, it's an idea of Mrs. Hind-Willet's about caring for wayward girls.
Mrs. Willet thinks that it is cruel and silly to send them into virtual
imprisonment,