Bernard had seen these ladies only in borrowed and provisional abodes; but here was a place where they were really living and which was stamped with their tastes, their habits, their charm.

The little salon was very elegant; it contained a multitude of pretty things, and it appeared to Bernard to be arranged in perfection.

The long windows--the ceiling being low, they were really very short--opened upon one of those solid balconies, occupying the width of the apartment, which are often in Paris a compensation for living up five flights of stairs, and this balcony was filled with flowers and cushions.

Bernard stepped out upon it to await the coming of Mrs.Vivian, and, as she was not quick to appear, he had time to see that his friends enjoyed a magnificent view.

They looked up at the triumphal Arch, which presented itself at a picturesque angle, and near the green tree-tops of the Champs Elysees, beyond which they caught a broad gleam of the Seine and a glimpse, blue in the distance, of the great towers of Notre Dame.