ff the glasses, which sprang back into a
fold of his clothing like retracted feelers.

"Yes." He stood and looked at her without seeing her. "Very well. I have
brought down a gentleman."

"A gentleman--?"

"The greatest American collector--he buys only the best. He will not be
long in Paris, and it was his only chance of coming down."

Undine drew herself up. "I don't understand--I never said the tapestries
were for sale."

"Precisely. But this gentleman buys only this that are not for sale."

It sounded dazzling and she wavered. "I don't know--you were only to put
a price on them--"

"Let me see him look at them first; then I'll put a price on them," he
chuckled; and without waiting for her answer he went to the door and
opened it. The gesture revealed the fur-coated back of a gentleman
who stood at the opposite end of the hall examining the bust of a
seventeenth century field-marshal.

The dealer addressed the back respectfully. "Mr. Moffatt!"

Moffatt, who appeared to be interested in the bust, glanced over his
shoulder without moving. "See here--"

His glance took in Undine, widened to astonishment and passed into
apostrophe. "Well, if this ain't the damnedest--!" He came forward and
took her by both hands. "Why, what on earth are you doing down here?"

She laughed and blushed, in a tremor at the odd turn of the adventure.
"I live here. Didn't you know?"

"Not a word--never thought of asking the party's name." He turned
jovially to the bowing dealer. "Say--I told you those tapestries'd
have to be out and outers to make up for the trip; but now I see I was
mistaken."

Undine looked at him curiously. His physical appearance was unchanged:
he was as compact and ruddy as ever, with the same astute eyes under the
same guileless brow; but his self-confidence had become less aggressive,
and she had never seen him so gallantly at ease.

"I didn't know you'd become a great collector."

"The greatest! Didn't he tell you so? I thought that was why I was
allowed to come."

She hesitated. "Of course, you know, the tapestries are not for sale--"

"That so? I thought that was only his dodge to get me down. Well, I'm
glad they ain't: it'll give us more time to talk."

Watch in hand, the dealer intervened. "If, nevertheless, you would first
take a glance. Our train--"

"It ain't mine!" Moffatt interrupted; "at least not if there's a later
one."

Undine's presence of mind had returned. "Of course there is,"