tail at the cost
of walking on blades. But for the little mermaid there the necessity
was, as she, Letty read on.

"Before long a young girl came by; she gave a start of terror and ran
back to call for assistance. Several people came to her aid, and after
a while the little mermaid saw the prince recover his consciousness,
and smile upon the group around him. But he had no smile for her; he
did not even know that she had saved him. Her heart sank, and when she
had seen him carried into the large building, she dived sorrowfully
down to her father's palace."

Lifting her eyes to meditate on this situation Letty saw Allerton
standing between the portieres. Her dream of being little mermaid to
his prince went out like a pricked bubble. Though he neither smiled
nor sneered she knew he was amused at her, with a bitterness in his
amusement. In an instant she saw her transformation as it must appear
to him. She had spent his money recklessly, and made herself look
ridiculous. All the many kinds of shame she had ever known focused on
her now, making her a glowing brand of humiliations. She stood
helpless. Hans Andersen dropped to the floor with a soft thud.
Nevertheless, it was she who spoke first.

"I suppose you--you think it funny to see me rigged up like this?"

He took time to pick up the book she had dropped and hand it back to
her. "Won't you sit down again?"

While she seated herself and he followed her example she continued to
stammer on. "I--I thought I ought to--to look proper for the house as
long as I was in it."

Her phrasing gave him an opening. "You're quite right. I should like
you to get whatever would help you in--in your profession before
you--before you leave us."

Quick to seize the implications here she took them with the submission
of those whose lots have always depended on other people's wills.

"I'll go whenever you want me to."

Relieved as he was by this willingness he was anxious not to seem
brutal. "I'd--I'd rather you consulted your own wishes about that."

She put on a show of nonchalance. "Oh, I don't care. It'll be
just--just as you say _when_."

He would have liked to say when at that instant, but a pretense at
courtesy had to be maintained. "There's no hurry--for a day or two."

"You said a week or two yesterday."

"Oh, did I? Well, then, we'll say a week or two now."

"Oh, not for me," she hastened to assure him. "I'd just as soon go
to-night."

"Have you hated it as muc