"You look as fresh as ever this morning," he said. "I feared that the entertaining of such a company of Bohemians would have tired you out." "No, indeed," she returned. "I am of far too much endurance to be worn out by any thing of that sort. I have a drop of Bohemian blood in my veins myself, I think, and I like to meet men as men--when they are simply good fellows together, I mean. A woman usually sees men in an attitude of either deference or defense, and there is something inspiriting to her in being occasionally received as a comrade." "There are few women who can be received so," returned Herman. "I suppose it requires both an especial temperament and especial experiences to render a woman capable of being a comrade to men." The talk drifted away to general and indifferent subjects, broken here and there by allusions and criticisms relating to the Flight of the Months, and not infrequently dropping into brief silences. One of these Herman broke by saying abruptly: "You do not know how your song has haunted me all night. I have been saying over and over to myself 'I strew these opiate flowers On thy restless pillow.' And, indeed, I longed for some such soporific myself before morning. Your coffee or your song, or--yourself,"--he hesitated over the last word--kept me very effectually awake." "It must have been the coffee; there was little potency in either of the other causes." "There is much," he returned resolutely, advancing a step nearer. "Mrs. Greyson, I have not wasted the night. I have thought out a great many things; the first and chief being in regard to yourself." His tone, the piercing glow of his eyes, warned Helen what was coming. She thought of Ninitta, and retreated a step. "It is true," the sculptor continued, as if answering the doubt implied by her movement, "that I--" The door opened softly and Ninitta came in. His outstretched hand dropped; the words died upon his lips. He turned from one woman to the other an appealing look of hopeless sadness and left the studio in silence. It was characteristic of Helen's generosity that her first thought should be of the pain which Ninitta must feel. One glance at the model was sufficient to show that the Italian had comprehended enough of the interrupted scene to be made wretched; but it did not then occur to Mrs. Greyson that to Ninitta's jealous soul, unsuspicious of Herman, the only explanation of a fondness between the sculptor and his pupil lay in an effort on the part of the latter to win from the model her rightful and long betrothed lover. XVI. CRUEL PROOF OF THIS MAN'S STRENGTH. As You Like It; i.--2.