hers with Jerry.
Artist-like, she appraised this self-revelation of youth, in its
pitiful, lovable folly, and made it her own. As for poor Jerry, he was
evidently doomed to stumble from one love affair to another, until death
withered his charms. Too much love; too little love; so life goes
grinding on, like an endless film of the sated and the hungry.

Milly jumped into her lap, purring.

"Milly, you're one of the Jerrys; you get nothing but affection. Is it
because you demand it, or just because you are beautiful and people give
it to you?"

She heard voices on the stairs, and opened the door wide, the big cat in
her arms. Billy Biggs came first.

"Gen'l'mum to see yu, Miss Judd," he announced.

"Thank you, Billy. Welcome," she added simply to her guest. He took her
hand in his cordial clasp, and looked his pleasure. He gave Billy a
small tribute.

"You're a most excellent guide, my son," he remarked.

"I seen right away he didn't know this neighbourhood, Miss Judd, so I
sez to him: 'What ye lookin' fer?'"

"Thank you much, Billy," she smiled, closing the door on his monologue.

"Is this your family?" he asked, laying his hand on Milly's head.

"Yes. Her name is Militant, but we call her Milly, as a sort of tactful
evasion. Protects her with the neighbours, who are, on the whole,
conservatives."

He smiled, laid his coat aside, and turned to look at her closely. She
met his glance, flushing slightly.

"I have to get used to you at home."

He looked about him frankly.

"Yes, this is you--virginal, cloistered. Where did you get that Salome?"
he inquired.

"I don't know. I understand Salome."

She sat by the window, where the afternoon sun came in, the big cat
asleep in her lap. He drew a chair near her.

"I'm enormously curious about you. Where did you come from? Who were
your people? How did you get here?"

"It isn't a bit interesting. I was born in a little town named
Warburton, in New Jersey. My father was John Judd. He had a grocery
store and was a leading citizen. My mother was an actress."

"Ah!" said Christiansen.

"The company she was with went broke in our town, and she stayed on as
cashier in Judd's store. He married her and I was the only child. She
died when I was twenty; my father followed when I was twenty-two. I sold
the grocery, paid the debts, and came to New York to be an author."

She paused and turned her slow, rare smile on him. She had the ability
to sit perfectly still