Suzette wore an air of deep pathos during our repast--. She had put some blue round her eyes to heighten the effect of the red of the real tears, and she appeared very pretty and gentle--It had not the slightest effect upon me--I found myself looking on like a third person. The mole with its three black hairs seemed to be the only salient point about her. Poor little Suzette!--How glad I felt that I had never even pretended a scrap of love for her! That astonishing sense of the fitness of things which so many of these women possess, showed itself as the evening wore on--. Finding the situation hopeless, Suzette accepted it, curbed the real emotion in herself and played the game--She tried to amuse me--and then we discussed plans for her future. A villa at Monte Carlo she decided at last--A _bijou_ of a place! which she knew of--. And when we parted at about eleven o'clock everything was arranged satisfactorily. Then she said good-bye to me--She would go back to Paris by the last train--. "Good-bye, Suzette!"--and I bent down and kissed her forehead--"You have been the jolliest little pal possible--and remember that I have appreciated it,--and you will always have a real friend in me!" She burst into tears once more--real tears--. "_Je t'aime bien!_" she whispered--"I shall go to Deauville--_Va!_" We wrung hands, and she went to the door, but there she turned, and some of her old fire came back to her--. "Pah! these English Meeses! thin, stiff, _ennuyeuse_!--thou wilt yet regret thy Suzette, Nicholas!" and with this she left me. * * * * * So that episode in my life is ended--and I shall never repeat the experiment. But are not women the most amazing creatures! You adore them and give them abject devotion and they treat you as dirt--nothing can be so cruel as the tenderest hearted woman is to a male slave--! Another woman appears upon the scene--then the first one begins to treat you with some respect. You grow masterful--love is aroused in her. You become indifferent--and very often it is she who then turns into the slave!--The worst of it is that when you really care you are incapable of playing a game successfully. The woman's subconscious mind _knows_ that it is merely pretense--and so she remains a tyrant.--It is only when she herself has ceased to put forth sufficient attraction to keep you and you are growing numb that you can win out and find your self-respect again. There was a moment when I was very angry with Suzette and almost shaking her, when I saw in her eyes the first look of real passionate affection--! Are there any women in the world who could be mates?--who would be able to love one, and hold one at the same time--satisfying one's mind and one's spirit and one's body--?--Could Alathea--?--I do not know. I had got this far in my speculations when a note was brought to me by a smart French maid--it was now past eleven at night--. It was from Coralie--.