The Face and the Mask
there was not a happier girl in all Paris than Lurine. She almost cried it aloud to her favorite statue the next morning, for it seemed to her that the smile had broadened since she had passed it the morning before, and she felt as if the woman of stone had guessed the secret of the woman of flesh.     

       Lurine had noticed him for several days hovering about the Pharmacie, and looking in at her now and then; she saw it all, but pretended not to see. He was a handsome young fellow with curly hair, and hands long, slender, and white as if he were not accustomed to doing hard, manual labor. One       night he followed her as far as the bridge, but she walked rapidly on, and he did not overtake her. He never entered the Pharmacie, but lingered about as if waiting for a chance to speak with her. Lurine had no one to confide in but the woman of stone, and it seemed by her smile that she understood already, and there was no need to tell her, that the inevitable young man had come. The next night he followed her quite across the bridge, and this time Lurine did not walk so quickly. Girls in her position are not supposed to have normal introductions to their lovers, and are generally dependent upon a haphazard acquaintance, although that       Lurine did not know. The young man spoke to her on the bridge, raising his hat from his black head as he did so.     

       “Good evening!” was all he said to her.     

       She glanced sideways shyly at him, but did not answer, and the young man walked on beside her.     

       “You come this way every night,” he said. “I have been watching you. Are you offended?”     

       “No,” she answered, almost in a whisper.     

       “Then may I walk with you to your home?” he asked.     

       “You may walk with me as far as the corner of the Rue de Lille,”       she replied.     

       “Thank you!” said the young fellow, and together they walked the short distance, and there he bade her good night, after asking permission to meet her at the corner of the Rue St. Honoré, and walk home with her, the next night.     

       “You must not come to the shop,” she said.     

       “I understand,” he replied, 
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