lly as "sir," and thanked
him with due deference for coming; otherwise there was no change in her
demeanor. The flat-frilled cap showed within its border a delicate
ripple of hair, and above the fair breastplate of linen the face shone
with tender warmth like a white rose resting upon snow; and as her lips
moved in speech he re-encountered with a fervor of delight that curious
quality of look which had ever haunted his dreams--a communicativeness
not limited to words. Though it remained still her whole face spoke to
him; lips and eyes made music together--a harmony of two senses in
alliance, as into morning mist comes the yet unrisen light and the
hidden singing of birds.

And yet all the while she was but saying quite ordinary things, making
brief the embarrassment of this their first meeting since their relative
positions had become explained.

"I have taken you at your word, sir," she began. "When we last met you
asked if you could not be useful. Now you can."

"Your remembrance makes me grateful," said the Prince.

"Perhaps I ought not to be so confident," she went on, "since the idea
is only my own. It came from something I heard my father saying; and as
he strongly disapproves of women taking part in politics it was no use
saying anything to him."

"Oh, politics?" That explanation rather surprised him.

"Sometimes--just now and then," explained Sister Jenifer, "politics do
touch social needs: and to their detriment."

"My acquaintance with politics," answered the Prince, "is
very--Chimerical," he added after a pause, pleased to have found the
term.

"Yes," she smiled, "I have heard you. You are full of happy ideas, many
of them somewhat contradictory; but you have not yet fallen into any
groove. To you freedom means rebellion; you represent no vested
interest."

"Is that my certificate of character?"

"I had not finished," she said. "I was keeping the best to the last. You
have a great position and an open mind."

"An important combination, you think?"

"An unusual one."

"And so you have an unusual proposition to make to me?"

"Yes, I suppose you will think so. There is a brand I want plucked from
the burning--a Royal Commission saved from becoming merely official and
useless."

"What is its subject?"

"All this!"--she made an inclusive gesture--"slums, the conditions of
sweated labor, the daily material which we have to work on."

"About which you have taught me that I know really nothing.