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she had said, pimply raved over the supposed Frenchwoman. She
had enjoyed the sensation, to acquire which had once been the rul
ing ambition of her life, of enrapturing her thousands with her
beauty; yet even now she was not satisfied.
'And why?
Simply because there was one man and the man sho loved at
that that had not embraced the opportunity and was ignorant of
and indifferent to the splendors over which the populace raved. Yet
she had led the train. Would he remain so?
Mr. Athelstane went to his club that night in a very nervous Btato
of mind. Arriving there, he drank two brandy and sodas a somo
what unusual dissipation for him and thought very long and very
hard.
For, as a matter of fact, the young lawyer had a secret of which
the most intimate of his friends never Buspected him his love of art.
Pictures were a passion with himr and any line of art rendore 1 him
entirely happy. "A perfect woman," he mused, "I don't believe it.
Such a phenomenon does not exist. Purely for the sake of artistic
study I will go and see this Mile. Delacroix and satisfy myself of tho
idiocy of the mob of newspaper fools who call hor perfect.'
And the very next night he kept his word. And, as amid the
breathless hush of the multitude, the curtain rose, shortly before
midnight on the living picture, "Venus on the Halfshell," Mr.,
Arthur Athelstane's pale cheeks took on an unaccustomed glow,
and his stern lips emitted a gentle gasp of astonishment and delight
The pose of the "Venus" was perfect, the delicate tint of the "shell'
affording an exquisite foil for the rosy, life-like pink of the tapering
limbs, the slender waist, the magnificen shoulders and bust
Pooh! The curtain fell all too soon and the "rising young lawyer'
went out into the lobby and fanned himself. There ho met Mr.
Fleshleigh the manager, for whom he had often done clever and
valuable legal work, and to him he confided hia opinion that his
"Venus was absolute perfection.
The manager gave a snort of astonishment at such a remark, com
ing as it did from the man of parchment and ice. He concealed a
grin behind the palm of his hand and whispered, "come back with
me and I'll introduce you!
For an instant Athelstane hesitated. ''Will she will sho receive
visitors?" he stammered.
"Never asked her, but she will if I say so, "rejoined the manager,
with easy confidence. "Come on."
Athelstane had not time to refuse, and together tho pair threaded
their way through tho dim passage beneath tho stage, tho lawyer's
heart beating like a trip-hammer at the thought of this unheard-of
proceeding on his part.
"You wait a minute." commanded Fleshleigh, knocking at a small
door and entering at the sound of a faint."come in from the interior.
Athelstane turned his back and stood discreetly in the shadows, half
tempted to flee. There was a buzzing sensation in his ears so great
was his fright at his own temerity.
lit the dressing room "Venus" was putting the finishing touches
to her street attire. "I won't hear of receiving a visitor here, Mr.
Fleshleigh." was her prompt response to his request for permission
to introduce his friend.
"The deuce you won't,' replied the manager, with the btend
politeness of his race, "ihis is no Johnny I'm going to introduce
you to, but a man, a gentleman, a swell lawyer. I'll call him. Here,
come in, Athelstane!"
At the name Mile. Delacroix gave a little shriek, and aB the auto
crat of the theatre turned to admit the caller, who, of course, had
not heard her objections, she reached forward and turned the dec-.
trie light key. "Blast those lights," exploded the manager, "I'll
have to introduce you in the dark; Mile. Delacroix, Mr. Athelstane.
Excuse me 111 go and see what's wrong and be back in a minute."
In the pitchy darkness Mile. Delacroix, in a voice she succeeded
in making quite unnatural, said: "Pardon me, but I must ask you
to go at once, sir; I never receive visitors hero."
"I will obey gladly, madam," sputtered Athelstane, beside himself
with nervousness, "but first let me assure you that I only came"
"For what?" Mile. Delacroix was curious now.
"For art's Bake. I wished to congratulate you on the justice of
the public verdict that you are tho only perfect woman in existence."
"Then you did not come to make love to mo?" This very im
patiently. 'I swear I did not."
Then Mile. Delacroix did a daring, an unheard-of thing. "I don't
believe you know how,"sho whispered, and grasping the astounded
lawyer's face between her tiny hands she gavo him a soft, velvety
kiss that tasted to him like a mixture of honey, champagne and
violets.
The ice was broken. Tho legal head swam, partly with astonish
ment, partly with bibs. For an instant be hesitated. Then he
reached for her in the darkness and returned the kiss with some
thing like enthusiasim, accompanying the ralute with a hug suffici
ently bearlike to have convinced a wooden Indian of its sincerity.
After which he pushed her violently from him and plunged out in
to the passageway, slamming the door behind him.
Mile. Delacroix went home that night with little left to wish for.
He was not made of ice.
The next day it was blatantly recorded by the newspapers that
Mllo. Delacroix, the peerless "Venus on the Halfshell," had broken
her contract and left a saucy little note of farewell to her broken
hearted manager, announcing that sho would bo on her way to
Paris incognito before he received it.
Mr. Arthur Athelstano went about his duties in a dazed fashion.
His legal papers were like so many bundles of Sanscrit to him. Ho
tried to dictate letters and could not. He was utterly miserable,
and yet happy in a way. He was the soul of honor, and the thought
of that disloyal kiss haunted him. And yet, the memory of it! It
haunted him like the gorgeous dream of an opium eater. As a mat
ter of fact, no woman had kissed that cold but not unhandsome
mouth since his estimable aunt had bidden him goodby years ago,
when he was starting away from home to make his way in theworId.
And there was a difference.
All at once a great light broke over him. In flight from tempta
tion there was safety. Why not propose to Marian that very day?
He loved her, and would atone by years of devotion for that one
disloyal act.
Marian received him radiantly, royally. H'b hands trembled as he
possessed himself of her and asked bis fateful question.
Her answer was "kiss me."
He obeyed,
Again the dream of honey, champagne and violet.
"My God!" he exclaimed in ecstasy, aB he went bowling down the
Avenue presently, on his way to the club. "I am safe from disloyalty
even in thought. They kiss alike."
"Dearest," remarked Athelstane, in a mystified way, about a year
afterward, "I was rumaging among a lot of old books in the lumber
room this morning, and I came across a lot of pink tights and things
like that. Where on earth do you suppose they came from?"
"Now I am glad I discharged Susanne," remarked his wife, tran
quilly. "I was sure she' went to French balls and all that sort of
things." '
The Sculptor in Town Topics.
A FELLOW FEELING.
"I do not know of anything," said the young woman, "that touche
me more than Sullivan's Last Chord."
"Well," said farmer Corntossel. "I certainly kin sympathize with
Sullivan. Somebody's been Btealin' wood from me fur nigh unto
two years."
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