ed to
look for the cigarettes. When eventually he turned towards her, he
uttered a suppressed exclamation.

She had taken off her heavy cloak and her hat and thrown them
carelessly on a chair. She now stood a little to the left of the fire,
her face half turned towards it, and was busy removing her long
gloves. Her features, amid which nestled mystic trembling shadows,
showed bloodless, as though carved of ivory, and her great, dark brown
eyes were wonderfully soft and caressing. Her hair ran in a flowing
curve off the warm white pallor of her brow till it was lost beyond
the ear. Almost on top of her head it lay in a coil, bound with a
wide, green velvet band that was fastened in front with a great
emerald. Her throat, neck and shoulders rose with the same dull,
smooth whiteness, and with an exquisite firmness, from the strange,
green velvet costume it had pleased her to wear, and were set in its
gold border that glowed and sparkled with smaller emeralds. The robe
curved in at the waist, defining the adorable grace of her figure and
falling to the ground in gleaming folds and strange contrasts of light
and shade. And on each side hung a long, open sleeve with bright
yellow lining spread out to the view--a wide, descending sweep of gold
in glistening contrast with the deep green of the costume.

She had now placed her gloves on the same chair, and her long, bare
arms showed in all the firm beauty of warm ivory tones, without a
touch of rose in their whole length, even to the very finger tips. A
thick, gold bracelet encircled the wrist of her right hand. On the
other hand the gleam of ornament was given by the wedding ring and a
similar ring on the same finger set with a limpid diamond.

"Well," she said, smiling.

"You have taken me unawares. One moment you are a soberly clad person,
and the next a queenly blaze."

"The moonlight is really wonderful. Turn out the lamp and let me play
the 'Moonlight Sonata.'"

"No, smoke your cigarette instead," he suggested.

"You are afraid I might cause the good lady pleasant dreams instead of
pious ones. Thank you, dear."

He held her a light, and, after she had taken a puff or two, she
passed her cigarette to him.

"Your tribute, Morgan," she demanded.

He took a puff and passed it back to her. Then, when she had smoked a
little:

"It is delicious," she said. "Your lips have given it their sweetness
of honey, their fragrance of myrrh."

She leaned leisurely against