"That is a secret."
"Oh, if it's a secret, far be it that I should strive to peer within. The colonel is a lucky dog. If I were half as lucky, I shouldn't be writing novels for a living."
"Who knows?" she murmured, a far-away light in her glorious eyes.
NO CINDERELLA THE ADVENTURE OF THE SATIN SLIPPER
I
"Madam, have you lost a slipper?" I asked politely. I held toward her the dainty shoe that might very well have appareled the foot of Venus; only one can not quite lift the imagination to the point of picturing Venus rising out of the Cyprian wave in a pair of ball-room slippers.
"I am not yet addressed as madam," said she, calmly drawing her skirts about her feet, which were already securely hidden.
"Not yet? Ah, that is very fortunate, indeed. I see I am not too late."