h Floyd considers
it rather weak and sweet, Violet is enraptured.

"Would you like to go to a lunch or dinner at Madame Lepelletier's?" he
asks.

Violet considers a moment. She cannot tell why, but she longs for this
pleasure _alone_ with Mr. Grandon. It will be her first real enjoyment
with him.

"Would you--rather?"

There is an exquisite timidity in her voice, the touch of deference to
the husband's wishes that cannot but be flattering. She will go if _he_
desires it. He has only to speak. He remembers some one else who never
considered his pleasure or desire.

"My child, no!" and he folds her to his heart. "She wants you to come,
some time; she has spoken of it."

"I should like this to be just between _us_." There is the loveliest
little inflection on the plural. "And I should like to go there, too."

"Then it shall be just between _us_." Something in his eyes makes the
light in hers waver and go down; she trembles and would like to run
away, only he is holding her so tightly.

"What is it?" he asks, with a quick breath.

Ah, if she had known then, if he had known, even! He had never watched
the delicate blooming of a girl's heart and knew not how to translate
its throbs. He kisses her in a dazed way, and no kisses were ever so
sweet.

"Well," he says, presently, "we will let Cecil go over to Denise in the
morning"--he can even put his child away for her--"and keep our own
secret."

It is delicious to have a secret with him. She dreams of it all the
long evening; he is looking over some proofs with the professor. And
she can hardly conceal her joy the next morning; she feels guilty as
she looks Gertrude in the face.

The city is very gay this Saturday morning. They look in some shop
windows, they go to a tempting lunch, and then enter the charming
little theatre, already filling up with beautifully dressed women and
some such exquisite young girls. She wishes for the first time that she
was radiantly beautiful; she does not dream how much of this is attire,
well chosen and costly raiment.

She listens through the overture; she is not much moved during the
first act. Miss Neilson is pretty and winsome in her quaint dress, with
her round, white arms on her nurse's knee, looking up to her eyes; she
is respectful to her stately mother, and she cares for her lover. The
lights, the many faces about her, the progress of the play interest,
but it is when she comes to the balcony scene that Violet is stirr