He had been already told that the doom of that palatial edifice was sealed by the laying of the cornerstone of a new erection in the next square that should utterly eclipse it; he even fancied that it had already lost its freshness, and its meretricious glitter had been tarnished.

But when he had ordered his breakfast he made his way to the public parlor, happily deserted at that early hour.

It was here that he had first seen her.

She was standing there, by that mirror, when their eyes first met in a sudden instinctive sympathy.

She herself had remembered and confessed it.