of the girl who had disappeared, and of her stepfather's reasons
for finding her. She woke to cognizance of the subject only when Gorry
repeated the exact words of Miss Tina Vanzetti that morning: "Name of
Letty Gravely."

It was mademoiselle's turn for repetition. "But me, I know dat name. I
'ear it not so long ago. Name of Let-ty Grav-el-ly! I sure 'ear zat
name all recently." She reflected, tapping her forehead with vivacity.
"Mais quand? Mais oui? C'etait--Ah!" The exclamation was the sharp cry
of discovery. "Tina Vanzetti--my frien'! She tell me zis morning. Zat
girl--Let-ty Grav-el-ly--she come chez Margot with ole man--what he
keep ze white slave--and he command her grand beautiful
trousseau--Tina Vanzetti she will give me ze address--and I will tell
you--and you will tell him--and he will put you on to _riche
affairs_----"

"It'll be dollars and cents in the box office for me," Gorry
interpreted, forcibly, while the band belched forth a chord like the
groan of a dying monster, calling them again to their feet.

* * * * *

"'Remember,' said the witch," Allerton continued to read, "'when you
have once assumed a human form you can never again be a mermaid--never
return to your home or to your sisters more. Should you fail to win
the prince's love, so that he leaves father and mother for your sake,
and lays his hand in yours before the priest, an immortal soul will
never be granted you. On the same day that he marries another your
heart will break, and you will drift as sea-foam on the water.' 'So
let it be,' said the little mermaid, turning pale as death.'"

Allerton lifted his eyes from the book. "Does it bore you?"

There was no mistaking her sincerity. "_No!_ I _love_ it."

"Then perhaps we'll read a lot of things. After this we'll find a good
novel, and then possibly somebody's life. You'd like that, wouldn't
you?"

Her joy was such that he could hardly hear the "Yes," for which he was
listening. He listened because he was so accustomed to boring people
that to know he was not boring them was a consolation.

"Is there anybody's life--his biography--that you'd be specially
interested in?"

She answered timidly and yet daringly. "Could we--could we read the
life of the late Queen Victoria--when she was a girl?"

"Oh, easily! I'll hunt round for one to-day. Now let me tell you about
Hans Andersen. He was born in Denmark, so that he was a Dane. You know
where