discovery, in this
impenetrable group, of the Miss Wincher who had poisoned her far-off
summer at Potash Springs. To recognize her old enemy in the Marquise de
Trezac who so frequently figured in the Parisian chronicle was the more
irritating to Undine because her intervening social experiences had
caused her to look back on Nettie Wincher as a frumpy girl who wouldn't
have "had a show" in New York.

Once more all the accepted values were reversed, and it turned out that
Miss Wincher had been in possession of some key to success on which
Undine had not yet put her hand. To know that others were indifferent to
what she had thought important was to cheapen all present pleasure and
turn the whole force of her desires in a new direction. What she wanted
for the moment was to linger on in Paris, prolonging her flirtation with
Chelles, and profiting by it to detach herself from her compatriots and
enter doors closed to their approach. And Chelles himself attracted
her: she thought him as "sweet" as she had once thought Ralph, whose
fastidiousness and refinement were blent in him with a delightful
foreign vivacity. His chief value, however, lay in his power of exciting
Van Degen's jealousy. She knew enough of French customs to be aware that
such devotion as Chelles' was not likely to have much practical bearing
on her future; but Peter had an alarming way of lapsing into security,
and as a spur to his ardour she knew the value of other men's
attentions.

It had become Undine's fixed purpose to bring Van Degen to a definite
expression of his intentions. The case of Indiana Frusk, whose brilliant
marriage the journals of two continents had recently chronicled with
unprecedented richness of detail, had made less impression on him than
she hoped. He treated it as a comic episode without special bearing on
their case, and once, when Undine cited Rolliver's expensive fight for
freedom as an instance of the power of love over the most invulnerable
natures, had answered carelessly: "Oh, his first wife was a laundress, I
believe."

But all about them couples were unpairing and pairing again with an ease
and rapidity that encouraged Undine to bide her time. It was simply a
question of making Van Degen want her enough, and of not being obliged
to abandon the game before he wanted her as much as she meant he should.
This was precisely what would happen if she were compelled to leave
Paris now. Already the event had shown how right she