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 ka's hand till the tears came into her eyes, though she made no sound.

She came back into the great studio and found Astro gazing abstractedly out of the window. He was so lost in his reverie that he did not notice her approach till she had laid a hand on his shoulder. Then he looked round, startled. His face changed wonderfully and became infinitely tender.

"You were right," she said softly, "there are two things that change human character, love and sorrow. Our poor Mr. Jenson has tasted both, I think."

"It will make a man of him," said Astro. "I hope it may make a man of me!"

He walked into the little laboratory. Into a Florence flask, filled with a solution of lead acetate, he dropped a few pieces of zinc. In an hour there had grown up, exquisitely feathery and foliated, the crystalline tree of lead, the arbor Saturnæ of the alchemists, potent with its parable of life.

Valeska found it there after he had left, looked at it a moment, and bit her lip in silence. Then, after a quick timid look about, she took up the flask and gave it a kiss.