Her skirts swept his carpet with a musical swirl.

She carried with her a faint, indefinable perfume of violets,--a perfume altogether peculiar, dedicated to her by a famous chemist in the Rue Royale, and supplied to no other person upon earth.

Who else was there, indeed, who could have walked those few yards as she walked?
He rose to his feet and pointed to a chair.
"You have come to ask about your shares ?" he asked politely.

"So far, we have nothing but good news for you." She recognized that he spoke to her in the presence of his clerk, and she waved her hand.
"Women who will come themselves to look after their poor investments are a nuisance, I suppose," she said.

"But indeed I will not keep you long.