thus saving
Flamby more than half the usual cost. Once committed to an emprise,
Don's resource was limitless.

Flamby switched on the centre light of her little domain, fitted with a
charming shade of Japanese silk, and removing her coat (purchased
locally at a price which she had considered preposterous) she stood
gazing vacantly into the little square mirror above the mantelpiece
behind the china clock. It reflected the figure of a slim girl wearing a
blue serge skirt, a blue jersey coat and a grey velour hat--a very
pretty girl indeed, her colour heightened by the humid night air.

How swiftly her life had moved in that one short week. She stared at her
reflection with a sudden interest, seeking for signs of age. Eight days
ago she had possessed no friend in all the world; now, friends seemed to
have sprung up around her miraculously, and all at the bidding of Don.
From such lonely despondence as she had never known he had lifted her
into a new and brighter world. She had seen the studio of the great
Claude Chauvin; she was actually going to work there on three days of
every week. On the other three she was to attend the art school. The
crowning wonder of it all lay in the fact that Chauvin proposed to pay
her a salary. Her father had taught her to expect nothing but rebuffs,
although he had assured her that some day she would make a reputation as
an animal painter. She recognised that Don was the magician whose
transmuting wand had surrounded her with the gold of good fellowship. He
had forgotten nothing.

* * * * *

One day they had lunched at Regali's, that esoteric Italian restaurant
wherein disciples of all the Arts congregate to pay tribute to good
cooking and modest bills.

Don, who seemed to know everybody, presented the great Severus Regali
himself, a vast man ponderously moustached and endowed with a mighty
voice and the fierce bearing of a Bellino; a figure in _bravura_ with
the heart of a child. He bowed low before Flamby, one huge hirsute hand
pressed to his bosom.

"Ragout Regali is on to-day," he said; no more--but those words
constituted an initiation, admitting Flamby to the Epicurean circle.

Of Severus Regali and his famous ragout a story was told, and this was
the story as related by Don: No other chef in Europe (Regali had
formerly been chef to a Personage) could make a like ragout, and Regali
jealously retained the secret of the preparation, which he only