uestions. Everything he inquired about she responded
to with absolute honesty and a sort of vagueness which precluded any
such feelings as wounded pride. He learned, by his adroit questionings,
that they were now very poor, that Dallas had been spending his
principal, which was now exhausted, and that their chief means of
support was the money she obtained for doing a very elaborate sort of
embroidery which she had learned while at the convent. When he asked if
she had all the work she wanted she said no, and that she often rang
door-bells and asked ladies to give her work and was refused. She told
all this with apathy, however, and seemed to have no power of acute
feeling outside of her child.

Then Noel, with a beating heart, made a proposal to her which had
occurred to him during the wakeful hours of the night, but which he
had felt he should hardly have courage for. This was that she should
come every day and give him sittings for a new picture he had in mind.
When he suggested it, to his delight she caught eagerly at the idea,
accepting every word he said in absolute good faith, and showing no
disposition to doubt when he told her that every hour would be many
times more valuable so spent than in sewing, as good models were rare
and very well paid. She thanked him with the simplest gratitude, and
when she heard that she would be allowed to bring her child with her she
promised to come the next morning to his studio. The baby, she said, was
better now, and would sleep for hours at a time, and in the afternoon
she could take him on the water as usual. It was evident that there was
no one else who made any demand upon her time--a significant fact to
Noel.

Accordingly, next morning she came, her baby in her arms as usual. She
had made an effort to dress herself attractively, looking upon the
matter in a very businesslike way, and so girlish and charming and
delicately high-bred did she look in her French-made gown of transparent
black, with trimmings of pale green ribbons, and a wide lace hat to
match, that Noel rebelled with all his might against her lugging that
absurdly superfluous baby up those long steps. Still it was necessary to
accept the inevitable, and he set his teeth and said nothing. When she
had laid the sleeping child upon a lounge and turned toward him, her
eyes fastened eagerly upon a great bunch of crimson roses in a blue
china bowl, which Noel had gotten in honor of her coming. She did not,
of cou