In words Steptoe had to be his interpreter. "That, poor little dog as
'as growed so fond of madam don't get 'alf the exercise he ought to be
give. If madam was to tyke 'im out like for a little stroll up the
Havenue...."

Thus it happened that in less than half an hour Letty found herself
out in the October sunlight, dressed in her blue-green costume, with
all the details to "correspond," and leading Beppo on the leash. To
lead Beppo on the leash, as Steptoe had perceived, gave a reason for
an excursion which would otherwise have seemed motiveless. But she was
out. She was out in conditions in which even Judson Flack, had he met
her, could hardly have detected her. Gorgeously arrayed as she seemed
to herself she was dressed with the simplicity which stamps the French
taste. There was nothing to make her remarked, especially in a double
procession of women so many of whom were remarkable. Had you looked at
her twice you would have noted that while skill counted for much in
her gentle, well-bred appearance, a subtle, unobtrusive, native
distinction counted for most; but you would have been obliged to look
at her twice before noting anything about her. She was a neatly
dressed girl, with an air; but on that bright afternoon in Fifth
Avenue neatly dressed girls with an air were as buttercups in June.

Seizing this fact Letty felt more at her ease. No one was thinking her
conspicuous. She was passing in the crowd. She was not being "spotted"
as the girl who a short time before had had nothing but the old gray
rag to appear in. She could enjoy the walk--and forget herself.

Then it came to her suddenly that this was the secret of which she was
in search, the power to forget herself. She must learn to do things so
easily that she would have no self-consciousness in doing them. In big
things Barbara Walbrook might think of herself; but in all little
things, in the way she spoke and walked and bore herself toward
others, she acted as she breathed. It seemed wonderful to Letty, this
assurance that you were right in all the fundamentals. It was
precisely in the fundamentals that she was so likely to be wrong. It
was where girls of her sort suffered most; in the lack of the
elementary. One could bluff the advanced, or make a shot at it; but
the elementary couldn't be bluffed, and no shot at it would tell. It
betrayed you at once. You must _have_ it. You must have it as you had
the circulation of your blood, as something so bas