Page:The Tattooed Countess (1924).pdf/57

 ness at first. A moment later, recollecting herself, she echoed, Yes, in a slightly more uneasy tone. What, she asked herself, was coming next?

Why were you tattooed? Is it fin de siècle?

Why, no, Lou; it's eternal.

O, I know it lasts! Why did you do it?

Ella prepared to dive: It was a wager.

But on the wrist, where it shows! It wouldn't have been so bad if it had been on the back or the. . . thigh, where it could be covered.

Is that why it matters, because it shows?

Lou opened her eyes very wide. Why, of course, she replied, apparently astonished by the question. That is the sort of thing we would keep hidden here.

Ella smiled. Well, she said, I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of. Had I thought so I wouldn't have had it done, but I suppose our point of view is different. The only things I try to hide are my charities. When I help some one along through a scant year or a period of sickness I don't talk about it. But this! Why I'm proud of it!

No more was said of the matter at this time. The conversation was forced back—a process in which each did her part—to their parents, to their father's last hours—he had died while the Countess was in Africa—and to the sisters' college days. After a half-hour or so of this Ella began to yawn, admitting that she was thoroughly fatigued. The long trip across the country, she explained, had