'Excuse me! This is Riquette!' announced a big girl, hatless like the rest, with shining eyes. 'It's a she.' 'And this is my secretary, Mr. Jimbo,' said Rogers, breathlessly, emerging from a struggling mass. Minks and Jimbo shook hands with dignity. 'Your room is over at the Michauds, as before.' 'And Mr. Mix is at the Pension--there was no other room to be had---' 'Supper's at seven---' 'Tante Jeanne's been _grand-cieling_ all day with excitement. She'll burst when she sees you!' 'She's read the story, too. Elle dit que c'est le bouquet!' 'There's new furniture in the salon, and they've cleaned the sink while you've been away!...' The author moved forward out of the crowd. At the same moment another figure, slight and shadowy, revealed itself, outlined against the white of the gleaming street. It had been hidden in the tangle of the stars. It kept so quiet. 'Countess, may I introduce him to you,' he said, seizing the momentary pause. There was little ceremony in Bourcelles. 'This is my cousin I told you about--Mr. Henry Rogers. You must know one another at once. He's Orion in the story.' He dragged up his big friend, who seemed suddenly awkward, difficult to move. The children ran in and out between them like playing puppies, tumbling against each in turn. 'They don't know which is which,' observed Jinny, watching the introduction. Her voice ran past him like the whir of a shooting star through space--far, far away. 'Excuse me!' she cried, as she cannoned off Monkey against Cousinenry. 'I'm not a terminus! This is a regular shipwreck!' The three elder ones drew aside a little from the confusion. 'The Countess,' resumed Daddy, as soon as they were safe from immediate destruction, 'has come all the way from Austria to see us. She is staying with us for a few days. Isn't it delightful? We call her the little Grafin.' His voice wumbled a trifle thickly in his beard. 'She was good enough to like the story--our story, you know-- and wrote to me---' 'My story,' said a silvery, laughing voice. And Rogers bowed politely, and with a moment's dizziness, at two bright smiling eyes that watched him out of the little shadow standing between him and the children. He was aware of grandeur. He stood there, first startled, then dazed. She was so small. But something about her was so enormous. His inner universe turned over and showed its under side. The hidden thing that so long had brushed his daily life came up utterly close and took him in its gigantic arms. He stared like an unmannered child. _Something had lit the world_.... 'This _is_ delicious air,' he heard Minks saying to his cousin in the distance--to his deaf side judging by the answer: 'Delicious here--yes, isn't it?' _Something had lit the stars._...