pale, still, perhaps--a little too
interesting. Colette will be so glad to see you, for you must let me
take you home with me. I shall carry you off, whether you will or not,
now I have caught you. We will have a little music just among ourselves,
as we had in the good old times--you know, our dear music; you will feel
like yourself again. Ah, art--there is nothing to compare with art in
this world, my darling!"

Jacqueline yielded without hesitation, only too glad of the unhoped-for
good fortune which relieved her from her ennui and her depression. And
soon the hired victoria was on its way to that quarter of the city which
is made up of streets with geographical names, and seems as if it were
intended to lodge all the nations under heaven. It stopped in the Rue
de Naples, before a house that was somewhat showy, but which showed from
its outside, that it was not inhabited by high-bred people. There were
pink linings to lace curtains at the windows, and quantities of green
vines drooped from the balconies, as if to attract attention from the
passers-by. Madame Strahlberg, with her ostentatious and undulating
walk, which caused men to turn and notice her as she went by, went
swiftly up the stairs to the second story. She put one finger on the
electric bell, which caused two or three little dogs inside to begin
barking, and pushed Jacqueline in before her, crying: "Colette! Mamma!
See whom I have brought back to you!" Meantime doors were hurriedly
opened, quick steps resounded in the antechamber, and the newcomer
found herself received with a torrent of affectionate and delighted
exclamations, pressed to the ample bosom of Madame Odinska, covered with
kisses by Colette, and fawned upon by the three toy terriers, the most
sociable of their kind in all Paris, their mistresses declared.

Jacqueline was passing through one of those moments when one is at the
mercy of chance, when the heart which has been closed by sorrow suddenly
revives, expands, and softens under the influence of a ray of sunshine.
Tears came into her eyes, and she murmured:

"My friends--my kind friends!"

"Yes, your friends, whatever happens, now and always," said Colette,
eagerly, though she had probably barely given a thought to Jacqueline
for eighteen months. Nevertheless, on seeing her, Colette really
thought she had not for a moment ceased to be fond of her. "How you have
suffered, you poor pussy! We must set to work and make you feel a little
ga