Page 124 (1/2)

Adele looked fiercely up into the girl's face

"Keep still, hein, la petite!" she cried And the epithet--"little

one"--was a light to Celia Till now, upon these occasions, with

her black cereue eyes,

and the dignity of her carriage, she had already produced soun She had been

wont to sail into the room, distant, mystical She had her

audience already expectant of mysteries, prepared for marvels Her

as already half done But now of all that help she was

deprived She was no longer a person aloof, a prophetess, a seer

of visions; she was siirl of today,

trussed up in a ridiculous and painful position--that was all The

dignity was gone And the more she realised that, theher audience, the less able she was to

concentrate her mind upon them, to will them to favour her Mme

Dauvray's suspicions, she was sure, were still awake She could

not quell theer personality than hers at work

in the roos into her

ankles She dared not coely tied She made no

remonstrance And then Helene Vauquier raised her up froround For a moment she held

her so If Celia had felt ridiculous before, she knew that she was

ten ti in Helene

Vauquier's arms, with her delicate frock ludicrously swathed and

swaddled about her legs But, again, of those atched her no

one smiled

"We have had no such tests as these," Mme Dauvray explained, half