r--what do you call it?--proper. And of course I could not see
clearly at night, anyway. But I did notice he was about six feet tall.
Imagine me, poor little me, looking up to six feet! With broad
shoulders; an athletic, muscular figure, like a young Hercules; a
well-shaped head, like Apollo's, covered with curls of fair hair; a
smooth, clear skin, with the tint of the rose in his cheek that deepened
to blood-red when his blue eyes, in which the skies of all the world
seemed to be mirrored, stared with an expression like that of a man upon
whom the splendor of some glorious Paradise was just dawning. He looked
like an Englishman, yet something in his attitude and general appearance
made me think that he was not. His hands--"

"Opal! Opal! What do you mean? How could you see so much of a young man
in so short a time? And at night, too?"

Opal pouted.

"You wanted a detailed description. I was trying to give it to you. As I
told you at the start, I couldn't see much. But anyway, he stared!"

"And I dare say he wasn't the only one who stared!" put in Lady Alice in
dry tones of reprehension. "I can't imagine who it could be, can you,
mother?"

"Not unless it was that strange young Monsieur Zalenska--_Paul_
Zalenska, I believe he calls himself--Paul Verdayne's guest. I rather
think, from the description, that it must have been he!"

"Zalenska? What a name! I wonder if he won't let me call him 'Paul!'"
said the incorrigible Opal, musingly. "I shall ask him the first time I
see him. Paul's a pretty name! I like that--but I'll never, never be
able to twist my tongue around the other. He'd get out of hearing before
I could call him and that would never do at all! But 'Monsieur,' you
say? Why 'Monsieur'? He certainly doesn't look at all like a Frenchman!"

"No one knows what he is, Opal; nor who. That is, no one but the
Verdaynes. He has always made a mystery of himself."

Opal clapped her small hands childishly.

"Charming! My ideal knight in the flesh! But how shall I attract him?"

She knitted her brows and pondered as seriously as though the fate of
nations depended upon her decision.

"Shall I send him my card, Alice, and ask him to call? Or would it be
better to make an appointment with him for the Park? Perhaps a
'personal' in the _News_ would answer my purpose--do you think he reads
the _News_, or would the _Times_ be better? Come, cousins, what do you
think? I am so young, you know! Please advise me."

She