The sense of a pleasant encounter--the appreciation of romance was in her blood.

She smiled at the debonair boy with as agreeable a self-consciousness as though she had been a young girl.
'But certainly, if monsieur desired.

The pleasure was for her.' Again an interchange of bows and smiles, sympathetically repeated by the interested young waiter.

Then the boy, laying his hat and coat aside, seated himself at the table and entered upon the business of the hour, while madame became tactfully absorbed in her odoriferous stew.
'What did monsieur desire ?' The waiter stood anxiously attentive, his head inclining gravely to one side, his dirty napkin swinging from his left hand.
The boy glanced up.
'What could the Hotel Railleux offer ?' The waiter met his eye steadfastly.

'Anything that monsieur cared to order.' The boy encountered the steadfast look, and a little gleam of humor shot into his eyes.
'Well, then, to begin with, should they say _Sole Waleska_ ?' The waiter's glance wavered, he threw the weight of his body from one foot to the other.