baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth: and
burning instead of beauty."

And at that moment the door from the corridor was flung open, and
Mary Magna came in.



XI


"My God, will you look who's here! Billy, wretched creature, I
haven't laid eyes on you for two months! Do you have to desert me
entirely, just because you've fallen in love with a society girl
with the face of a Japanese doll-baby? What's the matter with me,
that I lose my lovers faster than I get them? Edgerton Rosythe, come
in here--you've got a good excuse, I admit--I'm almost as much
scared of your wife as you are yourself. But still, I'd like a
chance to get tired of some man first. Hello, Planchet, how's my old
grannie making out in your scalping-shop? Say, would you think it
would take three days labor for half a dozen Sioux squaws to pull
the skin off one old lady's back? And a week to tie up the corners
of her mouth and give her a permanent smile! 'Why, grannie,' I said,
'good God, it would be cheaper to hire Charlie Chaplin to walk round
in front of you all the rest of your life!' And--why, what's this?
For the love of Peter, somebody introduce me to this gentleman. Is
he a friend of yours, Billy? Carpenter? Excuse me, Mr. Carpenter,
but we picture people learn to talk about our faces and our styles,
and it isn't every day I come on a million dollars walking round on
two legs. Who does the gentleman work for?"