Mollie Dane stood before him a beauty born.
Every nerve in Carl Walraven's body thrilled as he looked at her.

How lovely that face! How sweet that voice, that laugh! How eminently well she acted! He had seen women of whom the world raved play that very part; but he had never, no, never seen it better played than he saw it to-night.
"She will make the world ring with her name if she adheres to the stage," Carl Walraven said to himself, enthusiastically; "and she never will play anything better than she plays the 'Cricket.' She is Fanchon herself--saucy, daring, generous, irresistible Fanchon! And she is beautiful as the angels above." The play went on; Fanchon danced, and sobbed, and sung, and wept, and was mischievous as a scratching kitten, and gentle as a turtle-dove; took all the hearts by storm, and was triumphantly reunited to her lover at last.
I don't know how many young men in that audience were left without an atom of heart, how many would have given their two ears to be in handsome Landry Barbeaud's boots.
The roof nearly rose with the thunders of applause when the curtain fell, and Carl Walraven got up with the rest, his head whirling, his brain dizzy.
"Good Heaven!" he thought, stumbling along the dark, chilly streets to his hotel, "what a perfectly dazzling little witch she is! Was there ever such another sparkling, bewildering little fairy in the world before ?" Mr.Walraven spent the night in a fever of impatience.

He was one of those men who, when they set their hearts on anything, find no peace, no rest, until they obtain it.

He had come here partly through curiosity, partly because he dare not refuse Miriam; he had seen Mary Dane, and lo! at first sight he was dazzled and bewitched.
Next morning, at breakfast, Mr.Walraven obtained all the information he desired concerning Miss Mollie Dane.

Some half dozen of the actors were stopping at the hotel, and proved very willing, under the influence of brandy and water, to give the free-handed stranger Miss Dane's biography as far as they knew it.
She was just as charming off the stage as on; just as pretty, just as saucy, just as captivating.