"You had much better, dear lady, entrust the sale of your stuff to me. You see, I have my customers, and I know what buying is. I might set your glass-work in bronze frames or something similar, and they would pass, doubtless, as goods of my own." Gratitude bubbled up warmly within her. "Oh, will you really do that?" she cried, grasping his hand. "I shall be very pleased to let you, till I have found customers for myself." The pressure of her hand turned him scarlet to the roots of his hair. "To achieve that," he said, looking the other way bashfully, "it is above all things necessary that the gracious baroness doesn't hesitate any longer to establish herself in a home that is worthy of her." "I shall be only too glad," she replied merrily, "when I can afford it." "It may be years before you can," he interposed. "Well, I don't mind waiting years." "Allow me," he stammered, "to remind you once more, that as an old and intimate friend of your fiance, I am entitled----" She drew herself up. "If my fiance," she said, "was, or is ever likely to be, in a position to support me, I perhaps should not refuse; but as matters stand I can permit no one in the world, not even his dearest friend, to make me offers that can only humiliate me in the end." She turned her face aside to hide how hurt she felt. He instantly hung his head in penitence, nevertheless there was a gleam of triumph in his eyes. It was then arranged that one of his vans should call the next day for the transparencies, and business thus being concluded, he begged modestly to be allowed to stay a few minutes longer. He would so enjoy a little chat about the absent friend; he had so few opportunities. "I shall enjoy it too," Lilly responded, inviting him to sit down. "It's a great happiness for me to find someone who knows my fiance." The word "fiance" now fell glibly from her lips as something quite natural. As the chance of his staying longer had been foreseen and provided for, she had only to ring, and Frau Laue appeared in the famous brown velvet gown with the black sequin square decolletage, which was now decorously filled in with one of Lilly's white silk fichus. She bore a tea-tray with two dainty cups of mocha coffee; and when presented to Herr Dehnicke she made a curtsey, which would have graced a ball at Prince Orloffski's. After she had added a few remarks about the great histrionic artists of the past and the photographs to which they had affixed their autographs at her special request, she retired, as it beseemed her to do. Then Lilly displayed her charms as a hostess, and with the aroma of mocha coffee the spirit of "better days" pervaded everything. * * * * *