n instant Jadwin was taken all aback.

"What the devil!" he ejaculated, stopping short in the doorway.

Laura ran forward to him, the chains, ornaments, and swinging pendants
chiming furiously as she moved.

"I did surprise you, I did surprise you," she laughed. "Isn't it
gorgeous?" She turned about before him, her arms raised. "Isn't it
superb? Do you remember Bernhardt--and that scene in the Emperor
Justinian's box at the amphitheatre? Say now that your wife isn't
beautiful. I am, am I not?" she exclaimed defiantly, her head raised.
"Say it, say it."

"Well, what for a girl!" gasped Jadwin, "to get herself up--"

"Say that I am beautiful," commanded Laura.

"Well, I just about guess you are," he cried.

"The most beautiful woman you have ever known?" she insisted. Then on
the instant added: "Oh, I may be really as plain as a kitchen-maid, but
you must believe that I am not. I would rather be ugly and have you
think me beautiful, than to be the most beautiful woman in the world
and have you think me plain. Tell me--am I not the most beautiful woman
you ever saw?"

"The most beautiful I ever saw," he repeated, fervently. "But--Lord,
what will you do next? Whatever put it into your head to get into this
rig?"

"Oh, I don't know. I just took the notion. You've seen me in every one
of my gowns. I sent down for this, this morning, just after you left.
Curtis, if you hadn't made me love you enough to be your wife, Laura
Dearborn would have been a great actress. I feel it in my finger tips.
Ah!" she cried, suddenly flinging up her head till the pendants of the
crown clashed again. "I could have been magnificent. You don't believe
it. Listen. This is Athalia--the queen in the Old Testament, you
remember."

"Hold on," he protested. "I thought you were this Theodora person."

"I know--but never mind. I am anything I choose. Sit down; listen. It's
from Racine's 'Athalie,' and the wicked queen has had this terrible
dream of her mother Jezabel. It's French, but I'll make you see."

And "taking stage," as it were, in the centre of the room, Laura began:

"Son ombre vers mon lit a paru se baisser Et moi, je lui tendais les
mains pour l'embrasser; Mais je n'ai plus trouve q'un horrible melange
D'os et de chair meurtris et traines dans la fange, Des lambeaux pleins
de sang, et des membres affreux Que les chiens d'evorants se
disputaient entre eux."

"Great God!" exclaimed Jadwin, ignorant of the words yet, in spite of