She wore the gold dress, decolletee, slashed to the knee over rhinestone-spangled stockings.  And back of her trailed the twelve little darkies.

She sang “Dixie,” of course, and the “Old Folks at Home”; then a ragtime medley, with the chorus showing rows of white teeth and clogging with all their short legs.  Le Grande danced to that, a whirling, nimble dance.  The little rhinestones on her stockings flashed; her opulent bosom quivered.  The Dozent, eyes on the dancer, squeezed his companion’s hand.

“I love thee!” he whispered, rather flushed.

And then she sang “Doan ye cry, mah honey.”  Her voice, rather coarse but melodious, lent itself to the negro rhythm, the swing and lilt of the lullaby.  The little darkies, eyes rolling, preternaturally solemn, linked arms and swayed rhythmically, right, left, right, left.  The glasses ceased clinking; sturdy citizens forgot their steak and beer for a moment and listened, knife and fork poised.  Under the table the Dozent’s hand pressed its captive affectionately, his eyes no longer on Le Grande, but on the woman across, his sweetheart, she who would be mother of his children.  The words meant little to the audience; the rich, rolling Southern lullaby held them rapt:—­

“Doan ye Cry, mah honey—­
Doan ye weep no mo’,
Mammy’s gwine to hold her baby,
All de udder black trash sleepin’ on the flo’,”

The little darkies swayed; the singer swayed, empty arms cradled.

She picked the tiniest darky up and held him, woolly head against her breast, and crooned to him, rocking on her jeweled heels.  The crowd applauded; the man in the box kissed his flowers and flung them.  Glasses and dishes clinked again.

The Dozent bent across the table.

“Some day—­” he said.

The girl blushed.

Le Grande made her way into the wings, surrounded by her little troupe.  A motherly colored woman took them, shooed them off, rounded them up like a flock of chickens.

And there in the wings, grimly impassive, stood a private soldier of the old Franz Josef, blocking the door to her dressing room.  For a moment gold dress and dark blue-gray uniform confronted each other.  Then the sentry touched his cap.

“Madam,” he said, “the child is in the Riebensternstrasse and to-night he dies.”

“What child?” Her arms were full of flowers.

“The child from the hospital.  Please to make haste.”

Jimmy died an hour after midnight, quite peacefully, died with one hand in Harmony’s and one between Peter’s two big ones.

Toward the last he called Peter “Daddy” and asked for a drink.  His eyes, moving slowly round the room, passed without notice the grayfaced woman in a gold dress who stood staring down at him, rested a moment on the cage of mice, came to a stop in the doorway, where stood the sentry, white and weary, but refusing rest.

It was Harmony who divined the child’s unspoken wish.