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naught but herself can be her parallel for volatility." When Mrs. Grosvenor-Greens card came up they both descended to the hotel parlor, which March said looked like the saloon of a Moorish day-boat; not that he knew of any such craft, but the decorations were so Saracenic and the architecture so Hudson Riverish. They found there on the grand central divan a large lady whose vast smoothness, placidity, and plumpness set at defiance all their preconceptions of Mrs. Grosvenor Green, so that Mrs. March distinctly paused with her card in her hand before venturing even tentatively to address her. Then she was astonished at the low, calm voice in which Mrs. Green acknowledged herself, and slowly proceeded to apologize for calling. It was not quite true that she had taken her passage for Europe, but she hoped soon to do so, and she confessed that in the mean time she was anxious to let her flat. She was a little worn out with the care of housekeeping--Mrs. March breathed, "Oh yes!" in the sigh with which ladies recognize one anothers martyrdom--and Mrs. Green had business abroad, and she was going to pursue her art studies in Paris; she drew in Mr. Ilcombs class now, but the instruction was so much better in Paris; and as the superintendent seemed to think the price was the only objection, she had ventured to call. "Then we didnt deceive him in the least," thought Mrs. March, while she answered, sweetly: "No; we were only afraid that it would be too small for our family. We require a good many rooms." She could not forego the opportunity of saying, "My husband is coming to New York to take charge of a literary periodical, and he will have to have a room to write in," which made Mrs. Green bow to March, and made March look sheepish. "But we did think the apartment very charming", (It was architecturally charming, she protested to her conscience), "and we should have been so glad if we could have got into it." She followed this with some account of their house-hunting, amid soft murmurs of sympathy from Mrs. Green, who said that she had been through all that, and that if she could have shown her apartment to them she felt sure that she could have explained it so that they would have seen its capabilities better, Mrs. March assented to this, and Mrs. Green added that if they found nothing exactly suitable she would be glad to have them look at it again; and then Mrs. March said that she was going back to Boston herself, but she was leaving Mr. March to continue the search; and she had no doubt he would be only too glad to see the apartment by daylight. "But if you take it, Basil," she warned him, when they were alone, "I shall simply renounce you. I wouldnt live in that junk-shop if you gave it to me. But who would have thought she was that kind of looking person? Though of course I might have known if I had stopped to think once. Its because the place doesnt express her at all that its so unlike her. It couldnt be like anybody, or anything that flies in the air, or creeps upon the earth, or swims in the waters under the earth. I wonder where in the world shes from; shes no New-Yorker; even we can see that; and shes not quite a country person, either; she seems like a person from some large town, where shes been an aesthetic authority. And she cant find good enough art instruction in New York, and has to go to Paris for it! Well, its pathetic, after all, Basil. I cant help feeling sorry for a person who mistakes herself to that extent." "I cant help feeling sorry for the husband of a person who mistakes herself to that extent. What is Mr. Grosvenor Green going to do in Paris while shes working her way into the Salon?" "Well, you keep away from her apartment, Basil; thats all Ive got to say to you. And yet I do like some things about her." "I like everything about her but her apartment," said March. "I like her going to be out of the country," said his wife. "We shouldnt be overlooked. And the place was prettily shaped, you cant deny it. And there was an elevator and steam heat. And the location is very convenient. And there was a hall-boy to bring up cards. The halls and stairs

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