whose insolence
she had never forgotten, with indignant hostility; Mrs. Poole, who always
dressed as if she had a tumor, but whose remnant of a once lovely
complexion indicated perfect health, maintained her slight tolerant
smile; its effect somewhat abridged by the fact that the small turban of
bright blue feathers topping her large face had slipped to one side.
Mrs. Goodrich looked startled and gazed deprecatingly at her friends.
Mrs. Lawrence's eyes snapped, and Mrs. de Lacey looked thoughtful. Only
Mrs. Tracy spoke.

"Wonderful! I feel more like Methuselah than ever. But it certainly is
a relief to know what is the matter with me. Do go on, Mary--I may call
you Mary? I only came out the year you were married--and you cannot
imagine what a satisfaction it is to know that I am younger than
you--were once. I've never done any of those things one reads about to
keep looking young except cold cream my face at night, but I've often
felt as if I'd like to----"

"Do stop babbling, Lily Tracy!" exclaimed Mrs. Vane, who, however
disgusted, was quite as curious as the others to hear the rest of the
tale. And Mrs. Goodrich said softly:

"Yes, go on, Mary, darling. I am sure the most thrilling part is yet to
come. You see how interested your old friends all are."

Madame Zattiany moved her cool insolent eyes to Mrs. Vane's set visage.
"The time came when I knew that youth was returning to my face as well as
to the hidden processes of my body; and I can assure you that it excited
me far more than the renewed functioning of my brain. The treatment
induces flesh, and as I had been excessively thin, my skin, as flesh
accumulated, grew taut and lines disappeared. My eyes, which had long
been dull, had regained something of their old brilliancy under the
renaissance of brain and blood, and that was accentuated. My hair----"

"Do you mean to say that it restores hair to its natural color?" demanded
Mrs. Tracy, who had been plucking out bleached hairs for the past year.
"That would----"

"It does not. But my hair is the shade that never turns gray; and of
course my teeth had always been kept in perfect order. I should never in
any circumstances be a fat woman, but the active functioning of the
glands gave me just enough flesh to complete the outer renovation. My
complexion, after so many years of neglect, naturally needed scientific
treatment of another sort, but that was still to be had in Vienna."

"Ah!" The e