ent of
counter within the smallest apartment in the world, and addressing this
man as "Pere George" the stranger passed through a second sash doorway
and introduced Ralph Flare to the most miscellaneous and democratic
assemblage that he had ever beheld in his life.

Two long yellow tables reached lengthwise down a long, narrow _salon_,
the floor whereof was made of tiles, and the light whereof fizzed and
flamed from two unruly burners. A door at the farther end opened upon a
cook-room, and the cook, a scorched and meagre woman, was standing now
in the firelight, talking in a high key, as only a Frenchwoman can talk.

Then there was Madame George, fat and handsome, and gossipy likewise,
with a baby, a boy, and a daughter; and the patrons of the place, twenty
or more in number, were eating and laughing and all speaking at the same
time, so that Ralph Flare was at first stunned and afterward astonished.

His new acquaintance, Terrapin, went gravely around the table, shaking
hands with every guest, and Ralph was wedged into the remotest corner,
with Terrapin upon his right, and upon his left a creature so naive and
petite that he thought her a girl at first, but immediately corrected
himself and called her a child.

Terrapin addressed her as Suzette, and stated that his friend Ralph was
a stranger and quite solitary; whereat Suzette turned upon him a pair of
soft, twinkling eyes, and laughed very much as a peach might do, if it
were possible for a peach to laugh. He could only say a horrible _bon
jour_, and make the superfluous intimation that he could not speak
French; and when Madame George gave him his choice of a dozen
unpronounceable dishes, he looked so utterly blank and baffled that
Suzette took the liberty of ordering dinner for him.

"You won't get the run of the language, Flare," said Terrapin,
carelessly, "until you find a wife. A woman is the best dictionary."

"You mean, I suppose," said Flare, "a wife for a time."

Little Suzette was looking oddly at him as he faced her, and when Ralph
blushed she turned quietly to her _potage_ and gave him a chance to
remark her.

She had dark, smooth hair, closing over a full, pale forehead, and her
shapely head was balanced upon a fair, round neck. There was an
alertness in her erect ear, and open nostril, and pointed brows which
indicated keen perception and comprehension; yet even more than this
generic quickness, without which she could not have been French, the