ghtful little hat all made of downy plumes, the
play of colour in which her hair, curled delicately on her forehead and
drawn back to the neck in great waves, seemed to continue and to soften.

A crowd of artists and fashionable people were assiduous in their
attentions to so great a genius allied to so much beauty; and Jenkins,
bareheaded, and puffing with warm effusiveness, was going from one to
the other, stimulating their enthusiasm but widening the circle around
this young fame of which he constituted himself at once the guardian and
the trumpeter. His wife during this time was talking to the young girl.
Poor Mme. Jenkins! She had heard that savage voice, which she alone
knew, say to her, "You must go and greet Felicia." And she had gone to
do so, controlling her emotion; for she knew now what it was that hid
itself at the bottom of that paternal affection, although she avoided
all discussion of it with the doctor, as if she had been fearful of the
issue.

After Mme. Jenkins, it is the turn of the Nabob to rush up, and taking
the artist's two long, delicately-gloved hands between his fat paws, he
expresses his gratitude with a cordiality which brings the tears to his
own eyes.

"It is a great honour that you have done me, mademoiselle, to associate
my name with yours, my humble person with your triumph, and to prove
to all this vermin gnawing at my heels that you do not believe the
calumnies which have been spread with regard to me. Yes, truly, I shall
never forget it. In vain I may cover this magnificent bust with gold and
diamonds, I shall still be your debtor."

Fortunately for the good Nabob, with more feeling than eloquence, he is
obliged to make way for all the others attracted by a dazzling talent,
the personality in view; extravagant enthusiasms which, for want of
words to express themselves, disappear as they come; the conventional
admirations of society, moved by good-will, by a lively desire to
please, but of which each word is a douche of cold water; and then the
hearty hand-shakes of rivals, of comrades, some very frank, others that
communicate to you the weakness of their grasp; the pretentious great
booby, at whose idiotic eulogy you must appear to be transported with
gladness, and who, lest he should spoil you too much, accompanies it
with "a few little reserves," and the other, who, while overwhelming
you with compliments, demonstrates to you that you have not learned the
first word of your pro