that she should get along better if relieved of her
mother's ear. Tiny began at once to talk of her delight in being home
again, and Magdalena had time to recover herself.

Tiny Montgomery was an exquisitely pretty little creature, very small
but admirably proportioned, although thin. Her brown eyes were very
sweet under well-pencilled brows, her nose aquiline and fine. The mouth
was barely rubbed in, but the teeth were beautiful, the smile as sweet
as the eyes. She had the smallest feet and hands in California, and
to-day they were clad in white _suede_ with no detriment to their fame.
She wore a frock of white embroidered nainsook and a leghorn covered
with white feathers. She talked rather slowly, in language carefully
chosen, although plentifully laden with superlatives. Her voice was very
sweet, and highly cultivated.

Ila Brannan was taller, with a slender full figure, and very smart. She
wore a closely fitting frock of tan-coloured cloth, a small toque, and a
veil covered with large velvet dots. She was very olive, and her cheeks
were deeply coloured. Her black eyes had a slanting expression. Young as
she was, there was a vague suggestion of maturity about her. She smiled
pleasantly and echoed Tiny's little enthusiasms, which had an air of
elaborate rehearsal, but she seemed to have brought something of Paris
with her, and to adapt herself but ill to her old surroundings.
Magdalena did not feel at ease with either of them, but concluded that
she liked Tiny best.

"Tell me something of Helena," she said finally. "Of course you saw her
in Paris."

"Oh, constantly," replied Tiny. "She's perfectly beautiful, 'Lena,
_perfectly_. Mamma took her with us one night to the opera, and so many
people asked her who the beautiful American was. She has grown _quite_
tall, and is wonderfully stylish. Colonel Belmont has simply showered
money on her since he went over, and she will have beautiful clothes,
and cut us _all_ out when she comes back." But Tiny did not look in the
least disturbed, and peeped surreptitiously into the polished glass of
the window.

"She'll have all the men wild about her," announced Ila; she spoke with
a slight French accent, which was not affected, as she had spent the
greater part of the last five years in Paris. "And she is going to be a
very dashing belle. She informed me that she shall run to fires and do
whatever she chooses, and make people like it whether they want to or
not. But I doubt