were chiselled with the clear and divine perfection of this Greek girl’s; her ears were as delicate and as finely wrought.  The colour of her skin was so tender that it reminded you vaguely of all beautiful soft things, the radiance of sunset and the darkness of the night, the heart of roses and the depth of running water.  The goddess’s hand was raised to her right shoulder, and Margaret’s hand was as small, as dainty, and as white.

‘Don’t be so foolish,’ said she, as Arthur looked silently at the statue.

He turned his eyes slowly, and they rested upon her.  She saw that they were veiled with tears.

‘What on earth’s the matter?’

‘I wish you weren’t so beautiful,’ he answered, awkwardly, as though he could scarcely bring himself to say such foolish things.  ’I’m so afraid that something will happen to prevent us from being happy.  It seems too much to expect that I should enjoy such extraordinarily good luck.’

She had the imagination to see that it meant much for the practical man so to express himself.  Love of her drew him out of his character, and, though he could not resist, he resented the effect it had on him.  She found nothing to reply, but she took his hand.

‘Everything has gone pretty well with me so far,’ he said, speaking almost to himself.  ’Whenever I’ve really wanted anything, I’ve managed to get it.  I don’t see why things should go against me now.’

He was trying to reassure himself against an instinctive suspicion of the malice of circumstances.  But he shook himself and straightened his back.

‘It’s stupid to be so morbid as that,’ he muttered.

Margaret laughed.  They walked out of the gallery and turned to the quay.  By crossing the bridge and following the river, they must come eventually to Dr. Porhoet’s house.

* * * * *

Meanwhile Susie wandered down the Boulevard Saint Michel, alert with the Sunday crowd, to that part of Paris which was dearest to her heart.  L’Ile Saint Louis to her mind offered a synthesis of the French spirit, and it pleased her far more than the garish boulevards in which the English as a rule seek for the country’s fascination.  Its position on an island in the Seine gave it a compact charm.  The narrow streets, with their array of dainty comestibles, had the look of streets in a provincial town.  They had a quaintness which appealed to the fancy, and they were very restful.  The names of the streets recalled the monarchy that passed away in bloodshed, and in poudre de riz.  The very plane trees had a greater sobriety than elsewhere, as though conscious they stood in a Paris where progress was not.  In front was the turbid Seine, and below, the twin towers of Notre Dame.  Susie could have kissed the hard paving stones of the quay.  Her good-natured, plain face lit up as she realized the delight of the scene upon which her eyes rested; and it was with a little pang, her mind aglow with characters and events from history and from fiction, that she turned away to enter Dr Porhoet’s house.