g up of details will influence the general effect.

While the master was speaking, the king was announced. Irma hurriedly
spread a damp cloth over her clay model.

The king entered. He was unattended, and begged Irma not to allow
herself to be disturbed in her work. Without looking up, she went on
with her modeling. The king was earnest in his praise of the master's
work.

"The grandeur that dwells in this figure will show posterity what our
days have beheld. I am proud of such contemporaries."

Irma felt that the words applied to her as well. Her heart throbbed.
The plaster of Paris which stood before her suddenly seemed to gaze at
her with a strange expression.

"I should like to compare the finished work with the first models,"
said the king to the artist.

"I regret that the experimental models are in my small atelier. Does
Your Majesty wish me to have them brought here?"

"If you will be good enough to do so."

The master left. The king and Irma were alone. With rapid steps, he
mounted the ladder and exclaimed, in a tremulous voice:

"I ascend into heaven--I ascend to you. Irma, I kiss you, I kiss your
image, and may this kiss forever rest upon those lips, enduring beyond
all time. I kiss thee, with the kiss of eternity."

He stood aloft and kissed the lips of the statue. Irma could not help
looking up, and, just at that moment, a slanting sunbeam fell on the
king and on the face of the marble figure, making it glow as if with
life.

Irma felt as if wrapped in a fiery cloud, bearing her away into
eternity.

The king descended and placed himself beside her. His breathing was
short and quick--she did not dare to look up--she stood as silent and
as immovable as the statue. Then the king embraced her--she lay in his
arms and living lips kissed each other.

When the artist returned, the king was alone. Irma crossed the street,
on her way to the palace, as if dreaming. She felt herself borne on
wings, and likened herself to Semele whom the ardent kisses of Jupiter
had made immortal.

"The greatest happiness has been mine," said she to herself. "I can
easily give up all else, for the kiss of eternity rests upon my lips."

The people and the houses seemed like so many shadowy forms, and she
felt as if flying through the air above them.

It was not until she had gained her apartment and beheld her costume,
that she was reminded of the ball that was to take place that very
night. Her lips were wreathed i