interesting to her coming at that moment toward the table. That some one
was a man about forty, whose pointed black beard was becoming slightly
gray--a man whom some people thought ugly, chiefly because they had never
seen his somewhat irregular features illumined by a smile which,
spreading from his lips to his eyes, lighted up his face and transformed
it. The smile of Hubert Marien was rare, however. He was exclusive in
his friendships, often silent, always somewhat unapproachable. He seldom
troubled himself to please any one he did not care for. In society he
was not seen to advantage, because he was extremely bored, for which
reason he was seldom to be seen at the Tuesday receptions of Madame de
Nailles; while, on other days, he frequented the house as an intimate
friend of the family. Jacqueline had known him all her life, and for her
he had always his beautiful smile. He had petted her when she was
little, and had been much amused by the sort of adoration she had no
hesitation in showing that she felt for him. He used to call her
Mademoiselle ma femme, and M. de Nailles would speak of him as "my
daughter's future husband." This joke had been kept up till the little
lady had reached her ninth year, when it ceased, probably by order of
Madame de Nailles, who in matters of propriety was very punctilious.
Jacqueline, too, became less familiar than she had been with the man she
called "my great painter." Indeed, in her heart of hearts, she cherished
a grudge against him. She thought he presumed on the right he had
assumed of teasing her. The older she grew the more he treated her as if
she were a baby, and, in the little passages of arms that continually
took place between them, Jacqueline was bitterly conscious that she no
longer had the best of it as formerly. She was no longer as droll and
lively as she had been. She was easily disconcerted, and took everything
'au serieux', and her wits became paralyzed by an embarrassment that was
new to her. And, pained by the sort of sarcasm which Marien kept up in
all their intercourse, she was often ready to burst into tears after