quite admirable gowns. But
who are they, may I ask? I thought there was nothing between New York
Society and the poor but--well, the bourgeoisie."

He informed her.

"Ah! You see--well, I always heard that your people of the artistic
and intellectual class were rather eccentric--rather cultivated a pose."

"Once, maybe. They all make too much money these days. But there are
freaks, if you care to look for them. Some of the suddenly prosperous
authors and dramatists have rather dizzy-looking wives; and I suppose
you saw those two girls from Greenwich Village that sat across the
aisle from you tonight?"

She shuddered. "One merely looked like a Hottentot, but the
other!--with that thin upper layer of her short black hair dyed a
greenish white, and her haggard degenerate green face. What do they do
in Greenwich Village? Is it an isolation camp for defectives?"

"It was once a colony of real artists, but the big fish left and the
minnows swim slimily about, giving off nothing but their own sickly
phosphorescence."

"How interesting. A sort of Latin Quarter, although I never saw
anything in Paris quite like those dreadful girls."

"Probably not. As a race we are prone to exaggerations. But are you
not going to tell me your name?"

She had finished her supper and was leaning against the high back of
her chair, her long slender but oddly powerful looking hands folded
lightly on the black velvet of her lap. Once more he was struck by her
absolute repose.

"But certainly. I am the Countess Zattiany."

"The Countess Zattiany!"

"The Countess Josef Zattiany, to be exact. I went to Europe when I was
a child, and when I finished school visited my cousin, Mary Zattiany--I
belong to the Virginian branch of her mother's family--at her palace in
Vienna and married her cousin's nephew."

"Ah! That accounts for the resemblance!" exclaimed Clavering. And
then, quite abruptly, he did not believe a word of it.

"Resemblance?"

"Yes, poor old Dinwiddie was completely bowled over when you stood up
and surveyed the house that night. Thought he had seen the ghost of
his old flame. I had to take him out in the alley and give him a
drink."

She met his eyes calmly. "That was the cause of his interest? Cousin
Mary always said that the likeness to herself as a young woman was
rather remarkable, that we might be mother and daughter instead of only
third cousins."

"Ah--yes--exactly. Is--is she with you?"