be sorry to predict how long it would last and what would come
after it, and I believe in my heart that the best thing that could
happen for him would be to be knocked over by a Prussian bullet. But
after all the thing may never come off. A girl like Minette must have
lovers in her own class. I have no doubt she is fond of Dampierre at
present, but no one can say how long it will last. I can imagine that
she is proud of her conquest. He is good-looking, a gentleman, and rich.
No doubt she is envied in her quarter, and besides it must be a
gratification to her to have induced or fascinated him into casting in
his lot with the reds, but all that will pall in time. If I were in his
place I should never feel sure of her until I had placed the ring on her
finger."

"That is the time when I should begin not to feel sure of her," Rene
laughed, "my anxieties would begin then. She is as changeable as an
April sky. She could love passionately for a time, but for how long I
should be sorry to guess. You see her in the studio, she is delighted
with every fresh dress and fresh pose. Never was there so good a model
for a few days, then she gets tired of it, and wants something fresh.
She is like a child with a new doll; for a bit she will be wild over it;
she cannot sleep without it, she takes it with her everywhere, she
adores it, but will it soon be thrown by, and perhaps she will be
battering its head with a stick. When Minette first came to the studio I
was mad about her, now I would as soon have a tiger-cat for a mistress."

"That is too severe, Rene," a young man who had joined the studio but
three months before, expostulated. "She seemed to me a charming young
woman. I cannot understand what you and Cuthbert are talking of her in
this way for."

Rene laughed.

"Ah, you haven't got over the first stage yet, and many of the others
will agree with you. We all like her, you know, we are all glad to have
her with us; she is like a glass of champagne, and we cannot say
anything against her in that quality. It is only when one comes to talk
about her as a wife that one is frightened."

"I believe all this is on account of her standing last month as Judith
about to kill Holofernes."

"Perhaps you are right, Clement. I admit that was a revelation to me. I
used to laugh at Cuthbert, who declared she frightened him, but I felt
then he was right. Good heavens, what a Judith she was; it was enough to
make one shiver to see the look