Page:Travelling Companions (1919).djvu/100

86 conjecture as to her real identity. Mademoiselle X— was an assumed name, and according to more than one voice the lady was an imperious Russian princess with a distate for vulgar publicity. You know the rest of M. Briseux's history. Since then he has painted real princesses by the dozen. He has delighted mankind rarely. As for his having made me immortal, I feel as if it were almost true. It must be an eternity since the thing happened—so very unreservedly I've described it!