Then so quietly that it scarcely seemed abrupt, "Father," she asked, "was my mother--beautiful?" "What?" gasped Edgarton. "What?" Bristling with a grave sort of astonishment he reached up nervously and stroked his daughter's hair. "Your mother," he winced. "Your mother was--to me--the most beautiful woman that ever lived! Such expression!" he glowed. "Such fire! But of such a spiritual modesty! Of such a physical delicacy! Like a rose," he mused, "like a rose--that should refuse to bloom for any but the hand that gathered it." Languorously from some good practical pocket little Eve Edgarton extracted a much be-frilled chocolate bonbon and sat there munching it with extreme thoughtfulness. Then, "Father," she whispered, "I wish I was like--Mother." "Why?" asked Edgarton, wincing. "Because Mother's--dead," she answered simply. Noisily, like an over conscious throat, the tiny traveling-clock on the mantelpiece began to swallow its moments. One moment--two moments--three--four--five--six moments--seven moments--on, on, on, gutturally, laboriously--thirteen--fourteen--fifteen--even twenty; with the girl still nibbling at her chocolate, and the man still staring off into space with that strange little whimper of pain between his pale, shrewd eyes. It was the man who broke the silence first. Precipitately he shifted his knees and jostled his daughter to her feet. "Eve," he said, "you're awfully spleeny to-night! I'm going to bed." And he stalked off into his own room, slamming the door behind him. Once again from the middle of the floor little Eve Edgarton stood staring blankly after her father. Then she dawdled across the room and opened his door just wide enough to compass the corners of her mouth. "Father," she whispered, "did Mother know that she was a rose--before you were clever enough to find her?" "N--o," faltered her father's husky voice. "That was the miracle of it. She never even dreamed--that she was a rose--until I found her." Very quietly little Eve Edgarton shut the door again and came back into the middle of her room and stood there hesitatingly for an instant.