"Well, what do you think has happened? Athalie Greensleeve is

the most talked about girl in town! She has become the

fashion, Clive. You hear her discussed at dinners, at dances,

everywhere.

"Some bespectacled guy from Columbia University had an

article about her in one of the recent magazines. Every paper

has had something to say concerning her. They all disagree

except on one point,--that Athalie Greensleeve is the most

beautiful woman in New York. How does that hit you, Clive?

"Well, here's the key to the box of tricks. I'll hand it to

you now. Athalie has turned into a regular, genuine, out and

out clairvoyant, trade-marked patented. And society with a

big S and science with a little s are fighting to take

her up and make a plaything of her. And the girl is making

all kinds of money.

"Of course her beauty and pretty manners are doing most of it

for her, but here's another point: rumour has it that she's

perfectly sincere and honest in her business.

"How can she be, Clive? I ask you. Also I hand it to her

press-agent. He's got every simp in town on the run. He knows

his public.

"Well, the first time I met her she was dining with Dane

again at the Arabesque. She seemed really glad to see me.

There's a girl who remains unaffected and apparently

unspoiled by her success. And she certainly has delightful

manners. Dane glowered at me but Athalie made me sit down for

a few minutes. Gad! I was that flattered to be seen with such

a looker!

"She told me how it began--she couldn't secure a decent

position, and all her money was gone, when in came an old guy

who had patronised the medium whose rooms she was living in.

"That started it. The doddering old rube insisted that

Athalie take a crack at the crystal business; she took one,

and landed him. And when he went out he left a hundred bones

in his wake and a puddle of tears on the rug.

"She didn't tell it to me like this: she really fell for the

old gentleman. But I could size him up for a come-on. The

rural districts crawl with that species. Now what gets me,

Clive, is this: Athalie seems to me to be one of the

straightest ever. Of course she has changed a lot. She's

cleverer, livelier, gayer, more engaging and bewitching than

ever--and believe me she's some flirt, in a sweet,

bewildering sort of way--so that you'd give your head to know

how much is innocence and how much is art of a most

delicious--and, sometimes, malicious kind.




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