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 much. Whenever the yellow gentleman's boot-button eyes strayed to their table, she was ready for him with some fresh grimace, suggested by a truly fertile fancy.

He was bitterly annoyed to find himself no longer able to impress the Esmeralda with the fiery glances of passion; he felt that the need to see what new distortion of her angel face Pollyooly had ready for him weakened his power of concentrating himself in a burning gaze, and so impaired its intensity.

At the end of twenty minutes of it he gave it up, rose with a jerk from his chair, and strode out of the restaurant in a petulant fury.

"I congratulate you, Pollyooly—a very valuable accomplishment," said the Honorable John Ruffin, smiling.

Pollyooly flushed in a lively dismay. She had never perceived that the Honorable John Ruffin had brought to perfection the admirable art of seeming to see nothing while seeing everything.

"What has she been doing?" said the Esmeralda, smiling at him.

"Pollyooly has routed your yellow pet," said the Honorable John Ruffin.