" MADAM, have you lost a slipper?" I asked politely. I held toward her a dainty shoe that might very well have appareled the foot of Venus; only one can not quite lift the imagination to the point of picturing Venus rising out of the Cyprian wave in a pair of ball-room slippers.

"I am not yet addressed as madam," said she, calmly drawing her skirts about her feet, which were already securely hidden.