m a girl brought up in no place in particular, not even born in a
fixed spot, (Julia Kean, you remember, was born at sea,) with a father
who openly boasted of having a gizzard? And Mrs. Pace would give what
Judy called, "one of her black satin sighs."

"Why should she dress in black satin all the time?" exclaimed Judy,
after a particularly dismal dinner where Mrs. Pace had spent the time
telling of all the misguided persons who had left her protecting wing
and of the direful things that had befallen them. "The idea of any one
as huge as she is wearing tight black satin! Why, I noticed two great
square high-lights on her, measuring six inches across, one on her arm
and one on her capacious bosom. In the latter, the whole dinner table
was reflected. She should wear soft, loose things where no accenting
high-lights could find a foothold."

"Oh, Judy, you are too delicious!" laughed Molly. "Who but you would
notice the high-lights on your landlady's bosom, and then even the
reflections in those high-lights? But weren't you amused at the
'unmerciful disaster that followed fast and followed faster' all the
boarders that had not stayed at _Maison Pace_?

"One girl married a worthless art student and had to paint bathtubs for
a living; one girl got lead poisoning in a studio where she was
studying; one lady got her pocket picked on the Bois de Boulogne and one
poor gentleman was lost at sea. Two of these calamities certainly could
not have happened in this place. I'd defy anyone to get married here,
even to a worthless art student, nor could one very well get lost at
sea. I am glad we are to leave to-morrow and also glad that Elise
O'Brien will not come until we are installed in the Rue Brea."

Molly had seen Frances Andrews several times since the recognition at
the Opera, and had found her very agreeable but still peculiar,
passionate and moody. She was extravagant in her affection for Molly and
seemed eager to please Mrs. Brown. On the one occasion in which she had
seen Judy when she called at the _Maison Pace_, she had been embarrassed
and ill at ease with her and a little wistful, Molly thought.

She whispered to Molly on leaving: "I know Miss Kean despises me, but
don't let her influence you. I am not as good as you think I am, but I
am not half so bad as Miss Kean thinks I am. I got in wrong at
Wellington and never could live down that scrape. Breaking the eleventh
commandment is a terrible mistake: getting found out