She sat down, dress and all, in the thick softness of a great brown bear-skin and thought it over.
How odd it was, now that she considered it, that she needed no aid with these alien garments, that she knew instinctively their every feature, that there was no intricacy to cause her more than an instant's trouble.

This knowledge must be a piece with the intuitive wit that had been the wonder of Father Barnum and had enabled her to absorb his teachings as fast as he gave them forth.
She was interrupted in her reverie by the passing of a shadow across her window and the stamp of a man's feet on the planks at the door.

Of course, it was Poleon, who had come back to see her; so she rose hastily, gave one quick glance at the mirror above her washstand, choosing the side that distorted her image the least, and, hearing him still stamping, perfunctorily called: "Come in! I'll be right out." She kicked the train into place behind her, looped the shawl carelessly about her in a way to veil her modesty effectively, and, with an expectant smile at his extravagance of admiration, swept out into the big room, very self-conscious and very pleasing to the eye.

She crossed proudly to the reading-table to give him a fair view of her splendor, and was into the middle of the room before she looked up.

Taken aback, she uttered a little strangled cry and made a quick movement of retreat, only to check herself and stand with her chin high in the air, while wave after wave of color swept over her face.
"Great lovely dove!" ejaculated Burrell, fervently, staring at her.
"Oh, I--I thought you were Poleon.