It was merely to amuse herself that Sylvia approached Odette for an introduction to her famous _femme du monde_. The suggestion, while it gratified Odette's sense of importance, caused her, nevertheless, several qualms about Sylvia's fitness for presentation to Madame Corvelis. "_Elle a des idées très-larges, tu sais, mais--_" Odette paused. She could not bring herself to believe that Madame Corvelis's broad-mindedness was broad enough to include Sylvia. "_Pourtant_, I will ask her quite frankly. I will say to her, '_Madame_, there is an _artiste_ who wishes to meet a _femme du monde_.' _Ses idées sont tellement larges que peut-être elle sera enchantée de faire ta connaissance._ She has been so charming to me that if I make a _gaffe_ she must forgive me. _Enfin_, she came to take tea with me _chez Eliane_, and though of course I was careful not to introduce anybody else to her, she assured me afterward that she had enjoyed herself. _Alors, nous verrons._" Madame Corvelis was a little French Levantine who had married a Greek of Constantinople. Odette had made her acquaintance one afternoon by helping to unhitch her petticoats, which had managed to get caught up while she was alighting from a tram. Her gratitude to Odette for rescuing her from such a blushful situation was profuse and had culminated in an invitation to take tea with her "in the wretched little house she and her husband temporarily occupied in Odessa," owing to their flight from Constantinople at the rumor of war. "What was M. Corvelis?" Sylvia asked, when she and Odette were making their way to visit _madame_. "Oh, he was a man of business. I believe he was secretary to some large company. You must not judge them by the house they live in here; they left everything behind in Constantinople. But don't be frightened of M. Corvelis. I assure you that for a man in his position he is very simple." "I'll try not to be very frightened," Sylvia promised. "And _madame_ is charming. She has the perfect manners of a woman of forty accustomed to the best society. When I think that eight years ago--don't tell anybody else this--but eight years ago, _chérie_," Odette exclaimed, dramatically, "_je faisais le miché autour des boulevards extérieurs! Ma chérie_, when I think of my _mauvais début_, I can hardly believe that I am on my way to take tea with a femme _du monde_. _Enfin, on arrive!_"