"You may not come, please. I--I must go now." "I have frightened you away." "No, I only stayed on your account." "Let me take you home?" "No, thanks. Good-night." He took her hand. "I warn you that I shall find you, Miss Jane Judd. I never lose people who interest me." She pressed his hand, smiled, and left him. A few minutes later, as he was making his way to the door, previous to his own escape, Jerry came to him. "Mr. Christiansen, I'm Jerry Paxton. Mrs. Brendon said that you had Miss Judd with you. I'm looking for her." "She escaped. I tried hard enough to keep her, but she went home." "Went home?" "So she said. Who is she?" "Why, she's a girl who does things around the studios, I don't know her very well. She was good, wasn't she?" "She was the only thing in the show; a most beautiful creature." "Funny thing, we've never thought she had any looks." "It isn't the obvious kind of thing that is fashionable now. Odd, haunting sort of face." "One thing is obvious. Cinderella did not like the ball," said Jerry. "Maybe it was the Prince she didn't like. Modern princes are so disappointing," grinned the big man, to the other's discomfiture. CHAPTER VI Jane went home in such a stir of excitement that she could not sleep at all. The pageant and her success were merely the background for her conversation with Martin Christiansen. He had understood her, he had admired her, not because she looked well in the costume Jerry had designed, but because she had done her part with distinction, as he said. It delighted her to remember how frankly she had talked to him, even though she knew he was a most distinguished man of letters, critic and essayist. She had been used, in her mind, to set aside the great as a race apart from other humans, like the gods, and yet she, Jane Judd, had talked freely with one of them, told him her secret ambitions. She spent the night in happy waking dreams. But in the morning she laid them away, with her Salome costume. In her brown dress, with her hair combed straight back, she was plain Jane Judd again. She had promised to go to Miss Roberts in time to get her breakfast, and help her dress. On the way she determined that the part she had played in Jerry's show must make no difference in her relations with any of them. If Bobs or Jerry tried to express their gratitude by any increase of friendliness, she would show them that she did not want it. She came into Miss Roberts's studio with her costume in a big box. "Is that you, Jane Judd?" "Yes. Good-morning." "Come here, quickly." Jane hurried into the bedroom, in alarm. "Sit down and tell me everything that happened last night. Was it a success?" "Oh, yes. Everybody seemed to like it." "Was Jerry repaid for his trouble?" "I think so. I didn't talk to him about it." "What did you think of Mrs. Abercrombie Brendon?" "She is important, and has no manners." "Did she snub you?"