"If you please," he replied, as he followed the girl into the little _salon_. It was furnished wholly in Japanese fashion; the walls were hung with Japanese draperies, and a large thick rug covered the floor. On the mantel, prettily draped with a wide piece of flowered silk, stood a number of photographs, one of them a duplicate of the portrait of Mademoiselle Blanche that he had seen in the entrance of the Circus. As Jules glanced at this, he heard a light step in the adjoining room, and when he turned, Mademoiselle Blanche herself was looking at him out of her dark eyes. She walked toward him, flushing a little, and extended her hand. "I am sorry mamma is not here," she said. "She went out only a few minutes ago, and she'll be back soon. But we--" "You didn't expect any one so early. I ought to apologize, but I was impatient to come. Then--I--I hoped to find you alone." "So you have," she laughed, pointing to a chair near the grate-fire. She wore a dress of dark silk with little white spots in it that became her wonderfully, Jules thought. Around her neck was a piece of muslin, open at the throat, and muslin encircled her wrists. Once again Jules was impressed by the delicacy of her appearance; her skin had an almost transparent whiteness, and there was no colour in her cheeks, save when she flushed, which she did at the least cause. "How pleasantly you are lodged here," said Jules, looking around the room. The apartment was as small as his own, which he had considered one of the smallest in Paris. "Yes, we were fortunate to get it. And it seems so odd--it belongs to an actress who's spending the winter in the South of France. We have taken it furnished." "Then you're to be here all the winter?" said Jules, feasting his eyes on the clear white forehead, the white neck that he could see beneath the muslin. How beautiful she was! His surmise about the teeth had been correct; they were small and white, with little bits of red between them. "No," she replied, "I've been engaged at the _Cirque_ until the first of January. Then I shall go to Vienna, and appear there for several months." "Ah!" For a moment Jules was silent. "But you will take a rest before you go to Vienna?" She shook her head. "No. I should like to go home for Christmas to be with my sisters. But they will come to Paris instead." "But doesn't it tire you?" "No. It isn't hard. And I never like to stop. I must keep in practice."