where he had NOT forgotten it, and as he glanced around the empty
terrace where they stood he was struck with a fateful resemblance to it.
"And I should not remind you now of it," she went on, "except to say
that money can always take its place. As in the fairy story, the prince
must have a new arm made of gold." She stopped, and then suddenly coming
closer to him said, hurriedly and almost fiercely, "Can you not see that
I am advising you against my interests,--against myself? Go, then, to
Paris, and go quickly, before I change my mind. Only if you do not find
your friends there, remember you have always ONE here." Before he could
reply, or even understand that white face, she was gone.
He left for Paris that afternoon. He went directly to the Rue de
Frivole; his old resolution to avoid Helen was blown to the winds in
the prospect of losing her utterly. But the concierge only knew that
mademoiselle had left a day or two after monsieur had accompanied her
home. And, pointedly, there was another gentleman who had inquired
eagerly--and bountifully as far as money went--for any trace of
the young lady. It was a Russe. The concierge smiled to himself at
Ostrander's flushed cheek. It served this one-armed, conceited American
poseur right. Mademoiselle was wiser in this SECOND affair.
Ostrander did not finish his picture. The princess sent him a cheque,
which he coldly returned. Nevertheless he had acquired through his
Russian patronage a local fame which stood him well with the picture
dealers,--in spite of the excitement of the war. But his heart was no
longer in his work; a fever of unrest seized him, which at another time
might have wasted itself in mere dissipation. Some of his fellow artists
had already gone into the army. After the first great reverses he
offered his one arm and his military experience to that Paris which
had given him a home. The old fighting instinct returned to him with a
certain desperation he had never known before. In the sorties from
Paris the one-armed American became famous, until a few days before the
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