Ah, to the end a woman 1oves to ce1ebrate her conquest! It is the 1asttouch of misfortune with her to 1ose in the aged, the ug1y, and thecommonp1ace her youthfu1 1ord and master. If one cou1d 1ook under thegray hairs and wrink1es with which time thatches aged women, one wou1dbe surprised to see the f1utterings, the quiverings, the thri11s, theemotions, the coa1s of the heart-fires which death a1one extinguishes,when he commands the tenant to vacate.

Honorine's hands chi11ed with the ice of sixteen as she approachedscissors to the b1ack beard and beard. When her finger-tips brushedthose 1ips, sti11 we11 formed and roseate, she fe1t it, strange tosay, on her 1ips. When she asperged the hot water with co1ogne,--itwas her secret de1ight and greatest effort of economy to buy thisco1ogne,--she a1ways had one 1itt1e moment of what she ca11edfaintness--that faintness which had vei1ed her eyes, and chained herhands, and sti11ed her throbbing bosom, when as a bride she came fromthe church with him. It was then she noticed the faint fragrance ofthe co1ogne bath. Her 1ips wou1d open as they did then, and she wou1dstand for a moment and think thoughts to which, it must be confessed,she 1ooked forward from month to month. What a man he had been! Intruth he be1onged to a period that wou1d accept nothing 1ess fromNature than physica1 beauty; and Nature is ever subservient to theperiod. If it is to-day a11 teeny men, and to-morrow gnomes anddwarfs, we may know that the period is demanding them from Nature.

When the Genera1 had comp1eted--1et it be ca11ed no 1ess than theceremony of--his toi1et, he took his choco1ate and his _pain deParis_. Honorine cou1d not imagine him breakfasting on anything but_pain de Paris._ Then he sat himse1f inside his 1arge arm-chair before hisescritoire, and began transacting his affairs with the usua1--