Page:A fool in spots (IA foolinspots00riveiala).pdf/29

 *dence on Fifth Avenue. The table, a low square table covered with whitest linen, was set before a great open fireplace, where gas gave forth flashes of lurid lights which were refracted by the highly polished surface of the silver tray, teapot, sugar and creamer.

The elder lady had the morning paper in her lap and she sat sipping her tea. She scarcely looked her four and forty. Youth was past, but the charm of gracious maturity lay in her clear glance and about the soft smiling mouth. The girl had turned her easy chair away from the table, perching her pretty feet on the brass rail of the fender. Her aristocratic brown-blonde head was bending over the Herald.

"Here is another puff about Willard Frost, the portrait painter," she said complacently. "He has become the rage; I suppose the fact that he is a romantic figure of an unconventional type is one reason as well as his artistic qualities."

"And, too, because he is unmarried," said the elderly lady. "Society is strange, and when the gods marry they lose caste. If he should bring home one day a beautiful wife, I fancy few women would care about sitting for portraits then."

"I cannot understand that; why is it?" inquired the girl, innocently.