es; every
detail was faultlessly rendered. But Quita's cry of surprise expressed
annoyance rather than admiration.

"What possessed you to do _that_?" she asked, sharply. "It is a living
likeness--yes. Better send it to her friend, Captain Lenox. He would
give you a hundred and fifty rupees for it like a shot."

The instant the words were out she tingled with mortification at having
spoken them in Garth's presence. But he assumed a critical interest in
the picture, and Michael, in the first flush of achievement, had eyes
and thoughts for nothing else.

"A hundred and fifty? _Parbleu, non_!" he answered, hotly. "It is a
possession, a triumph. I do not part with it for money. All the while
she talked to you, I never took my eyes from her face, and I struck
while the iron was hot. _Mon Dieu, mais die est superbe_! _C'est une
deesse veritable_! _Rien non plus_!"

In ecstatic moments Michael deserted English altogether for the natural
language of the emotions; and Quita flashed a glance of amusement at
Garth.

"The pedestal already, you see!"

But Michael, deaf or unheeding, continued his paean of praise.

"But the head alone is not enough. _Il faut le tout ensemble_. _Ca
sera magnifique_. Now at last I have the centre figure for my great
picture--Mater Triumphans. In a day or two I call on her. I ask her
permission to immortalise her and myself in one achievement. No woman
in her senses could refuse so flattering a request; and her lips, her
eyes, betray that, goddess or not, she is before all things a woman."

"But, my good Michel," Quita interposed, with a deliberate lightness,
"ride your enthusiasm on the curb, I beg of you. Isn't one goddess at
a time enough to fill your expansive heart? I warn you that if you are
going to disgrace me by ostentatiously falling in love with this Mrs
Desmond, I shall give you up for good, and insist on a legal
separation! Now, I am tired of idling, and it's high time I went back
to my picture." She held out a hand to Garth. "_A demain_," she said,
with a gracious smile of dismissal. "But not till tea-time, please. I
have a certain amount of work to get through every day if _you_ have
not!"

Garth's reply was conveyed to a lingering pressure of her hand. He was
a past master in this discreet method of expressing the inexpressible;
and he had the satisfaction of seeing the colour deepen in her cheeks,
as she released herself hastily, and passed on into t