ry little taste in such matters, as you are well aware. Do my feet
now; I think that the nails need a little polishing; but very little; I
do not wish you to make them look as though they had been varnished; it
is a trick of yours."

Madame von Marwitz then resumed her cigarette and her letters while
Louise, fetching files and scissors, powders and polishers, mournfully
knelt before her mistress, and, drawing the _mule_ from a beautifully
undeformed white foot, began to bring each nail to a state of perfected
art. In the midst of this ceremony Karen Woodruff appeared. She led the
great dog by a leash and was still wearing her cap and coat.

"I hope I am not late, Tante," she said, speaking in English and going
to kiss her guardian's cheek, while Victor stood by, majestically
benignant.

"You are late, my Karen, and you had no business to take out Victor at
this hour. If you want to walk with him let it be in the afternoon.
_Aie! aie!_ Louise! what are you doing? Have mercy I beg of you!" Louise
had used the file awkwardly. "What is that you have, Karen?" Madame von
Marwitz went on. Miss Woodruff held in her hand a large bouquet
enveloped in white paper.

"An offering, Tante; they just arrived as I came in. Roses, I think."

"I have already sent half a dozen boxes downstairs for Mrs. Forrester to
dispose of in the drawing-room. You will take off your things now,
child, and help me, please, with all these weary people. _Bon Dieu!_ do
they really imagine that I am going to answer their inept effusions?"

Miss Woodruff had unwrapped a magnificent bunch of pink roses and laid
them beside her guardian. "From that good little dark-faced lady of
yesterday, Tante."

Madame von Marwitz, pausing meditatively over a note, glanced at them.
"The dark-faced lady?"

"Don't you remember? Mrs. Harding. Here is her card. She sat and gazed
at you, so devoutly, while you talked to Mr. Drew and Lady Campion. And
she looked very poor. It must mean a great deal for her to buy roses in
January--_un supreme effort_," Miss Woodruff quoted, she and her
guardian having a host of such playful allusions.

"I see her now," said Madame von Marwitz. "I see her face;
_congestionnee d'emotion, n'est-ce-pas_." She read the card that Karen
presented.

"Silly woman. Take them away, child."

"But no, Tante, it is not silly; it is very touching, I think; and you
have liked pink roses sometimes. It makes me sorry for that good little
lady that you