thing she wanted was to be alone--to clear all this muddle out of her
head. "No--wait!" she repeated. "There will be quite time enough to
attend to that when Nanette and Jules arrive; and in the meantime you
had better go down to the Bas Rhone and help Nanette if you can. When
they are ready, come back with them."

"Nanette, mademoiselle? But I do not know who Nanette is."

"My maid," said Myrna tersely.

"Yes, mademoiselle"--Marie-Louise, with a quick nod, was running from
the room. "At once, mademoiselle--as soon as I have put on my shoes
and stockings."

Myrna tossed her sunbonnet on a chair, and walked over to the table to
inspect the little clay figure. For ten minutes she stood in front of
it, now frowning, now with unconscious admiration the dominant
expression upon her face, now with puzzled bewilderment in her eyes.
Of the technique of any art she not only knew nothing, but secretly
held it in contempt; but she could not have been her father's daughter
to have lacked a sense of appreciation for the beautiful. At the end
of the ten minutes she picked up her sunbonnet again, and walked slowly
out of the house.

At the headland's point, two hundred yards away, she sat down upon the
rocks. She could not seem to get that little clay figure out of her
head now. It was amazing how it took form before her eyes as
realistically as though it were still in front of her! What a
wonderful charm and appeal there was in it! She could see that for
herself, even if her father had not grown so excited over it. "The
greatest sculptor in France"--well, perhaps that was a little
exaggerated! But her father was nevertheless acknowledged to be a
critic second to none in the world of art, and he was far too chary of
his reputation to sacrifice it on a myth. Certainly then, there was at
least a promise in the man's work. What did her father mean to do? He
had not rushed off that way for nothing. It was really charming, that
little figure. She would get Jean to let her have it, buy it from him.
Imagine possessing the first piece of his work, if the man ever
amounted to anything!

She threw a stone out into the water, watched it splash, watched the
spray of the breaking waves on what seemed like a reef away out to one
side of the headland, and watched a boat coming shoreward from out
beyond the reef again. There was a disturbed little gathering of her
brows. But suppose she did buy it, the thing would crumble t