er great brown eyes fixed adoringly on
his face as he directed the fascinating incomprehensible little song
straight at her charming self, was obviously in no present danger of
running the streets.

"Good morning, Miss Gould!" he said cheerfully, rising and handing the
guitar to the abashed Annabel. "And you are really quite recovered?
_C'est bien!_ Business is dull, and we are amusing each other, you see.
How do you like the rooms? I flatter myself--"

"If you flattered none but yourself, Mr. Welles, much harm would be
avoided," she interrupted with uncompromising directness. "Kitty and
Annabel, I cannot see how you can possibly tell how many people may or
may not be wanting lunch!"

"Billy Rider tells us when any one comes," the director assured her.
"They don't come till twelve, anyway, and then they want to see the
room, mostly--which we show them, don't we, Annabel?"

Annabel blushed, cast down her eyes, lifted them, showed her dimples,
and replied in the words, if not in the accents, of Thompson: "Yes,
sir!"

"It's really going to be an education in itself, don't you think so?"
he continued. "It's amazing how the people like it--it's really quite
gratifying. Perhaps it may be my mission to abolish the chromo and the
tidy from off the face of New England! We have had crowds here--just to
look at the pictures."

"I don't doubt it!" replied Miss Gould briefly.

"And I got the most attractive sugar-bowl from the little boy who
brought in the reports about picking up papers and such things from the
streets. He said he ought to have five cents, so I gave him a dime--I
hadn't five--and I bought the bowl. Annabel, my child, bring me--"

But Annabel and her fellow-waitress had disappeared. Miss Gould sat in
silence. At intervals her perplexed gaze rested unconsciously on the
Botticelli Venus, from which she instantly with a slight frown lowered
it and regarded the floor. When she at last met his eyes the expression
of her own was so troubled, the droop of her firm mouth so pathetic
and unusual, that he left his chair and dragged the little stool to
her feet, assuming an attitude so boyish and graceful that in spite of
herself she smiled at him.

"What is the matter?" he asked confidentially. "Is anything wrong?
Don't you like the room? I enjoy it tremendously, myself. I've been
here almost all the time since it was done. I think Tom Waters must be
tremendously impressed--"

"That's the trouble; he is," said Mi