wl sharpened into a snarl.
"Paliser! I don't like the breed. By God, if----"

The peradventure of that Cassy got before he could utter it. Paliser! Of
all men! The absurdity convulsed her. Her laughter ran up and down the
scale.

"You're the dearest old duck of a goose I ever heard of." She turned.
Her wrap swished. "I only wish you were going too."

Below, in the street, a man, precipitatingly vacating the box of a
machine, touched his cap at her. "Beg pardon, mem. Miss Cara? Mr.
Paliser's compliments and he's sent a car."

Cassy glanced at the man, who looked like a Roman emperor. From the man
she turned to the car. Superiorly and soberly finished, it beckoned.
Now, though, the Caesar was holding open the door. Cassy got in. The
emperor hopped up. The car leaped.

On the front seat was a box with her name on it. In it was a handful of
orchids. The luxury of the car, the beauty of the demon-flowers, the
flight from the walk-up, yet more, perhaps, the caresses and surrenders
of spring, affected her. If, she thought, if only the things that might
be could be the things that are! If only----

On the pale cushions she leaned back. Before her a curtain parted. In a
wide, marble-flagged hall she was looking at a girl who was looking at
her. A moment before he had said: "That is Miss Austen to whom I am
engaged." A moment before she had seen her picture. The girl was good to
look at, so good that, without further acquaintance, you knew she was
good through and through. There was no mistaking that. But was she good
enough? Was any girl good enough for him? And who was that with her?
Probably her mother who probably too was the catamount's sister. They
had a family likeness. Then at once the scene shifted. Cassy was in a
room floored with thick rugs, hung with heavy draperies, and in that
room the catamount had hired her to sing! But the disgust of it passed.
The curtain fell. Cassy turned to the window, through which a breath of
lilac blew.

She sniffed and stared. Where was she? Where was the Riverside? Where,
for that matter, was the roar of the glittering precinct in which the
Splendor tossed its turrets to the sky? Here were dirty and reeling
goblins; budding trees that bowed and fainted; a stretch of empty road
that the scudding car devoured. Afar was a house that instantly
approached and as suddenly vanished. Dimly beyond was another.

Cassy, leaning forward, poked at the emperor. "I will thank you to tell
me w