“The most beautiful I ever saw,” he repeated, fervently. “But⁠—Lord, what will you do next? Whatever put it into your head to get into this rig?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I just took the notion. You’ve seen me in every one of my gowns. I sent down for this, this morning, just after you left. Curtis, if you hadn’t made me love you enough to be your wife, Laura Dearborn would have been a great actress. I feel it in my finger tips. Ah!” she cried, suddenly flinging up her head till the pendants of the crown clashed again. “I could have been magnificent. You don’t believe it. Listen. This is Athalia⁠—the queen in the Old Testament, you remember.”

“Hold on,” he protested. “I thought you were this Theodora person.”

“I know⁠—but never mind. I am anything I choose. Sit down; listen. It’s from Racine’s Athalie , and the wicked queen has had this terrible dream of her mother Jezabel. It’s French, but I’ll make you see.”