A Son of the Immortals

f Auguste Comte, founder of Positivism. It would have puzzled her to explain what Positivism meant, or why it should be merely positive and not stoutly comparative

g worthily on a pedestal labeled "Ordre et Prog

ing tankard, showed gallantly by night, but was garish by day, since gas is akin to froth, to which the sun is pitiless. But the cabaret had its customers, quiet folk who gathered in the evening to gossip and drink strange beverages, whereas its nearest neighbor on the boulevard side was an empty tenement, a despondent ghost to-day, though once it had rivaled

never washed, Joan saw the query for the hundredth time, and, as ever, found its answer in the b

t Cabaret Latin, might have composed a chanson on the vanity of dead cafés; but this sprightly girl had chosen her residence there chiefly because it march

s time a kingly personage on horseback. She could never quite dispel the notion that Henri Quatre was ready to flirt with her. The roguish twinkle in his bronze eye was very taking, and there were not many men in Paris who could look at her in that way and win

retended that the meeting was accidental, though, after the first glance, the best-natured

ried the young man. "Are

demanded Joan, f

, when I play Number One for the Wand

art one of them; for thy speec

e follow that

in another time. I mu

our easel. Really, I h

You can watch me at work. That mu

dler," he

g time,' 'play,' 'Number One,' and

d, as Number One in my team, I shall have to hustle. Four stiff chukkers at polo are downright hard work, Miss

game, at any ra

ntilly, and, if we put them out in the first round of the tournament

ave no notion of their value. I must work steadily from two till five. That means a sixteenth of m

-two and a half centim

ell, fancy a poor artist sacrificing all that money in order to watch eight men g

smiling at her, and she hastily averted her eyes, having discove

tened her independence. Never before had she felt tonguetied in the presence of an admirer. She had dismissed dozens of them. She refrained now from sending this good-looking boy packing only

ou are not playing polo or lounging abou

no backbone for sport. Will you believe it, one has the greatest difficulty

gin to se

excepted, I have ever driven to the club. To-day's players are mostly Americans or English. Of course there are

e tourney

teaux. Everyone wants his best girl

st girl out of it; but Joan was kind h

gentleman of leisure and indepe

ng of th

for you, M

had chanced to glance at him she would have seen a somewhat pecu

-just a second too late to see that expres

ec. Correctly speaking, Alec isn't mother'

k you are an Amer

an American, my father a Kosn

hat is that

f Kosnovia? It is a

mystery, then,

; plain

all you pl

es

hat you would cal

t go a

. Good mor

xed. I really did not mean to be

ised

rry your traps. Pleas

ear one's Christian name occasionally," she declared. "I will compound o

of time; but she gave no sign. "My stipulation is of the slightest

notions as to nice pictures. They choose them to match the furniture. Now, th

the Louvre

all. She knew that a spiteful Bourbon had melted down no less than two statues of Napoleon in order to produce the fine cavalier who approved of her every time she crossed the Pont Neuf, and it se

d look, while Joan's frank comradeship was vastly more alluring than the skilled coquetry that left him cold. Physically, too, they were well

and athletic though he was, she set such a pace up the steps and through the lower galleries that further intimate talk became impossible. Atalanta well knew w

ven produce a conversational plum; but he was young enough to believe in lu

ough the side entrance. He carried his interest to the point of stopping the cab and following them. Young, clear skinned, black-haired, exceedingly well dressed, with the eyes and eyelashes of an Italian tenor, he moved with

recognized had passed. After that, he was safe. He appeared to be amused, even somewhat amazed, when he learned why Delgrado was patronizing the arts. Yet the discovery was evidently pleasing. He caressed a neat, black mustache with a well-manicured hand, whi

aiting victoria, waving that delicate hand and smiling with th

wn velvet, a plumed cavalier hat set rakishly on his head, and a lace ruffle caught up with a string of seed pearls round his neck, is holding out his right palm to a Gypsy woman, while the fingers of his

Joan. "What do

s already a suggestion of the high lights in the

ore than the origin

not taught you much about a

t master would wish

little blob of paint, put there two hundred years ago, yet it conveys the whole stock in trade of the fortune teller. Countless numbers of men and women have gazed at that picture, a multitude

at the boy's lips. Caravaggio must have modeled them from a girl's. What busin

joyousness that

mite that ball with a

the Italian co

some Lombard. She began to mix some pigments on the palette. Delgrado, already regretting an inexplicable outburst, turned from the p

ate that and you will find me a

talk of our uninteresting selves," she said. "What of the mystery you hinted at on the Qu

enough," he said. "It is the prefix I object to. It implies

ddles, and I suspect

through with it. Have you forg

they fear wrinkles. It gives them the semblance of looking in on themselves, and t

at did

I were a royal personage, and asked to be allowed t

y. "It sounds rather nonsen

tles. I have heard effo

l. Unfortunately, in my cas

ou a Prince?" she gasped, each wo

s-J

m I to say? Must I drop on o

. You would have been angry with me if I had kept it hidden fr

Why did they ma

in Paris a year and have never seen our names in the newspapers? My people

w," said Joan

elf, this friendship must go no farther. The decision caused a twinge; but she did not flinch, for Joan would always visit the dentist rather than endure toothache. She could not dismiss a Serene Highness merely because he declared his

f carried a warning. "You see, Joan, I had to tell you," he r

ue her. "Honors!" she broke in, and she laughed almost shrilly, for her voice

fact that he is regarded as a P

it. You will find it a task, though, to

potentates all live in Paris; that is the irony of it. I want to be candid with you, Joan. I have seen you every day since we met at Rudin's; but I did not dare to meet you too often lest you should send me away. You have given me a purpose in life. You have created a sort of hunger in me, and I refuse to be satisfied any longer with the easygoing existe

e forced herself to utter words that sounded like a jibe. "I am to play Pallas Athene to your

ou as my goddess, I am well

e oxen in the stall. They grow and spread, like the gourd along the ground; but, like the gourd, they give no shade to the traveler, and when they are ripe death gathers them, and they go down unloved into hell, and their name vanishes out of the land.' But to the souls of fire she gives more fire, and to those who are manful she gives a power more than man's. These are her heroes, the sons of the Immortals. They are blest, but not as the men who live at ease. She dri

re glistening. For one glowing second

hained to a rock to be

allas Athene," she said. "My shield of brass is an easel and

n him with an inspiration from topmost Olympus that, a

it at that," h

and the very considerations she thought she had conquered were now tugging at her heart-str

uoting a passage from one of Kingsley's Greek fairy ta

end, the Humming Bee. If he said anything funny to me just now, I should want to strangle him.

fidences would apply alike to the day's sport and his future life. With hands that trembled she essayed a further mixing of colors;

should cha

Minstrel t

t of Warsaw, and the only living artist who could put on canvas the gleam of heaven that lights the Virgin'

phet, Felix," said Joan w

y an avenger, a slayer of Kings.

noted that they were gray and very bright and piercing. At the same time the fancy crosse

elgrado is a Prince?" she said, letti

ing I know of him so far. It may spoil him in ti

had the chance of becoming a King, he wo

to a grin. He glanced at the easel a

which is more potent with monarchs, woman or dynamite. In Alec's case I fancy I should bet on the woman. Here, for example, is one that shook Heaven, and I have always thought that Eve was not given

s of some catchy refrain from the latest review. Anybody else who so transgressed the rules would have been summarily turned out by the guards; but the men knew him, and the Grande Galerie, despite its treasures, or perhaps because of them, is the least popular pa

ilemon and Baucis" when he heard a subdued but none the less poignant cry of distress from Joan. In order to turn his head he was co

cannot do anything right to-day.

he

you tease! Where el

belle mignonne,

irited, and the artist's mood has a way of expressing itself

ing, Felix. Sometimes, when

grinned. "One cannot both j

d an adieu over his humped shoulder when she hurried away. Then he gazed repro

utes les femmes! This affair is in your line. Why