starte_ than about
Montezuma, was hung in a gold frame in the dining-room. Chase
was no good at figures and it was Mrs. Hungerford's remark to
me, that Enderby's _Astarte_ if found in Regent Street would get
three months without the option of a fine, that lured me to her
side later. I went with Watkyns, with whom I was having lunch in
his studio on the Walk. He discovered one of Mrs. Chase's cards
on his mantel-piece and as it is her rule to bring a friend, we
went. In spite of her worship of painters for Enderby's sake,
Mrs. Chase really adores music and musicians. She has a
Bechstein grand standing on an oak floor polished like glass,
with tiger and bear-skins lying about. I am rather helpless
among musicians. Mrs. Hungerford is a tall, thin girl about
thirty, with curious flat, grey eyes that are most puzzling to
meet unless she is smiling, which is only seldom. I had made an
apologetic reference to my utter ignorance of Ravel and all the
new men, and she replied drily that I wasn't missing much. I
said I felt the lack of musical knowledge when talking to
musicians.

"'They want you to feel it,' she said. 'Musical people don't
seem to have any minds, only vanity.' And, by Jove, it exactly
expressed what I had often felt. After supper we became chummy
and sat in a corner talking about art and all sorts of things.
She struck me as extremely _experienced_, as though her ideas
were all original and had come from her own contact with life. I
suppose knowing so many clever men has caused this. I mentioned
Carville as one of the most remarkable men I'd ever met, and she
said calmly, 'Yes, he is. I know him very well.' I suddenly
remembered the other side of Carville's manifold nature and
asked if I had made a mistake. She said with a laugh, 'Not at
all. I understand him perfectly. We are excellent friends when
we meet.'

"'Well,' I said, 'if you understand him, it is more than I do,'
and I told her how Carville would come over to my place and
prowl round the studio and watch me at work. I said I thought he
ought to settle down. She laughed again and her grey eyes became
luminous.

"'He will never do that,' she said. 'He is under some curse, I
think. He complains he is forever doomed to be under the
influence of inferior women.