An Ambitious Man

There was a moment's silence; then Miss Dumont said: "I think I will

try to get a little sleep now, madame. I thank you for your kind

interest in me."

The Baroness descended to her room humming an air from an old opera,

and settled to the task of removing as much as possible all evidences

of fatigue and sleeplessness from her countenance.

It has been said very prettily of the spruce-tree, that it keeps the

secret of its greenness well; so well that we hardly know when it

sheds its leaves. There are women who resemble the spruce in their

perennial youth, and the vigilance with which they guard the secret

of it. The Baroness was one of these. Only her mirror shared this

secret.

She was an adept at the art of preservation, and greatly as she

disliked physical exertion, she toiled laboriously over her own

person an hour at least every day, and never employed a maid to

assist her. One's rival might buy one's maid, she reasoned, and it

was well to have no confidant in these matters.

She slipped off her dressing-gown and corset and set herself to the

task of pinching and mauling her throat, arms and shoulders, to

remove superfluous flesh, and strengthen muscles and fibres to resist

the flabby tendencies which time produces. Then she used the dumb-

bells vigorously for fifteen minutes, and that was followed by five

minutes of relaxation. Next she lay on the floor flat upon her face,

her arms across her back, and lifted her head and chest twenty-five

times. This exercise was to replace flesh with muscle across the

abdomen. Then she rose to her feet, set her small heels together,

turned her toes out squarely, and, keeping her body upright bent her

knees out in a line with her hips, sinking and rising rapidly fifteen

times. This produced pliancy of the body, and induced a healthy

condition of the loins and adjacent organs.

To further fight against the deadly enemy of obesity, she lifted her

arms above her head slowly until she touched her finger tips, at the

same time rising upon her tiptoes, while she inhaled a long breath,

and as slowly dropped to her heels, and lowered her arms while she

exhaled her breath. While these exercises had been taking place, a

tin cup of water had been coming to the boiling point over an alcohol

lamp. This was now poured into a china bowl containing a small

quantity of sweet milk, which was always brought on her breakfast

tray.

The Baroness seated herself before her mirror, in a glare of cruel

light which revealed every blemish in her complexion, every line

about the mouth and eyes.