e who ran away with a man, a great
artiste; she always received the same reply:

"Ave Maria? Don't know the name. Ave Maria? Haven't seen her since ..."

But Jimmy, always; Jimmy here, Jimmy there; they talked about him all the
time: his ideas; something new he had invented; something no one had ever
seen: much cleverer than "Bridging the Abyss," it seemed; but nobody knew
what.

"I know!" said Lily, with a well-informed air and very proud of knowing
Jimmy and of letting people think ...

"Do you know Jimmy?"

"Ever since I was that high," answered Lily. "He used to hold me on his
knees."

"And what is his new trick?"

"I'm not allowed to tell. He asked me not to say."

Everybody praised her for her discretion. The sympathy with which she was
surrounded increased.

"Jimmy," they hinted. "Now there's a fellow you ought to have married,
instead of your ..."

"Not a word against my husband," she said, like a good and devoted little
wife. "I won't have him insulted."

That did not prevent her from laughing with her friends. She felt a need
of forgetting, or she would have died of boredom, with a husband like
that. She was heavy at heart, sometimes. She was a woman, not an icicle.
She felt herself made for love. She was flesh and blood, like Jimmy. She
would have liked some one to console her, to talk softly to her, as
Glass-Eye Maud used to do. There were plenty willing to play the part of
Glass-Eye Maud, no doubt: the female-impersonator, for instance, with the
green eyes. Oh, she would have liked to be hugged, kissed full on the
mouth, or else stroked and petted gently! No home, no happiness; marriage
without love; that was her life henceforth. These stage friendships were a
relief.

The Bambinis romped with her. She loved their gaiety, liked to touch their
sturdy little limbs. That evening, Lily, who was ready for her performance
early, was having fun with them. Dressed in her pink tights, she looked
like a blithe nymph playing with rollicking cupids.

"What a charming group!" said a voice behind her. "If I were a painter,
Lily, I would do you like that!"

It was Jimmy, who had come to see her on the stage, as he had promised.

"Am I spoiling your game?" he asked. "It's so pretty! It makes me want to
kiss the lot of you!"

"Well, booby!" said Lily, all excited and laughing. "Why don't you? You
daren't!"

"I daren't! I'll show you whether I dare ... and ... I'm stronger than I
look!"

And thereupo