of
himself that was little short of eulogy.

At this juncture in his reflections the hangings at the parlor entrance
parted with a musical swish that was suggestive of feminine approach,
and the widow advanced into the room, with one slender hand extended in
cordial informality.

If this woman had seemed charming to him in the park, she was certainly
bewitching now.

The street costume in which she had first appeared was replaced by a
gown of some clinging white fabric, which shimmered the light with a
thousand blending radiations and fitted to every movement and contour
like an embrace conscious of its privileges.

A delicate collar of filmy lace surrounded her neck like the intricate
etchings of frost upon frost, and this was fastened with a solitary
pearl as chaste as the exquisite skin with which it managed to offer
only the faintest contrast.

Her head, crowned with a wavy nimbus of Titian auburn, was superbly set
upon her fine, symmetrical shoulders.

As she flashed upon the vision of this palpitating young man through the
parting curtains, like a dramatic climax or the goddess of reward, or
denunciation, she seemed to Dennis, whose mythology was centralized from
that moment, like another Aphrodite churned into lovely being by the
sea.

At the entrance of this beautiful woman Dennis had risen to his feet,
and stood for a moment, offering, with his helpless silence, a
compliment whose genuineness she thoroughly enjoyed.

When at last his tongue resumed its function, Dennis, like many another
with even more self-possession and experience, uttered just the words
which were intended for concealment, as he stammered:

"An' it's no wonder, at all, at all."

The exclamation, however, was barely above a whisper, and it was only by
following the motion of his lips and a shrewd intuition as to the rest
which enabled the widow to realize what he had uttered, as she asked,
smiling to note that the young man had neglected to release her hand:

"And what is it that is no wonder?"

At this question, Dennis, deserted for the moment by his customary
adroitness, was unable to do anything else than respond, without evasion
or subterfuge:

"Well, I was thinkin' it's no wonder the manager wanted to go into the
business."

"Ah!" laughed the widow with genuine enjoyment and a sensible
realization of the spirit which urged his exclamation and its
explanation, "that is Irish, I am sure"; and with that Dennis began to
f