“I understood him to be going to Pelléas and Mélisande.”

“He came to the Opera-house, but only for a minute.”

“Dios!”

“And, oh, dearest,” Miss Edwards dropped her cheek to her hand.

“Was Hatso as ever delicious?” Madame Ruiz asked, changing the topic as her woman returned, followed by a pomeranian of parts, “Snob”; a dog beautiful as a child.

“We had Gebhardt instead.”

“In Mélisande she’s so huge,” Madame Ruiz commented, eyeing severely the legal-looking packet which her maid had brought her.

“Business, Camilla; how I pity you!”

Madame Ruiz sighed.

“It seems,” she said, “that for the next nine-and-ninety years, I have let a Villa to a Mr. and Mrs. Ahmadou Mouth.”