ntly thought that her ethical
relationship justified an equally frank aesthetic helpfulness, and her
air of competence was bewildering. "No, we must not run away from the
truth! A smudge is a smudge from whatever standpoint one looks at it,
and a smear a smear."

The masterly treatment of porcelains, ivories, and silver on the
dressing-table, glimmering and gleaming from the soft shadows, to be
qualified in such terms!

"You are rather severe," I said. My discomfort was apparent, but she
naturally took it to be on my own behalf, not, as it was, on hers.

"Oh! you mustn't think _that_! I hope I am never unduly severe. You will
easily mend matters to-day and to-morrow and polish over that rather
careless look. And, as far as that goes, I am at your service as long as
you need me."

"As model _and_ critic," I observed, with a touch of bitterness.

"As model _and_ critic," she repeated, brightly. "Do you know," she
added, mounting the stand, "I found 'Manon Lescaut' on a bookshelf this
morning. I didn't know that it was a French book. I am going to read it
this evening."

I was struck dumb. This possibility had never presented itself to me.

"I shall find the scene you have painted," she continued, looking down
at her gown and patting a fold into place; "I shall see whether you have
illustrated it conscientiously."

"The book wouldn't interest you at all! Not at all!" I burst out,
conscious of a feverish intensity in the gaze I bent upon her. "It
is--it is decidedly _dull_!"

"Is it?" said Miss Jones, indifferently. "Now I can't quite believe
that. You evidently didn't think it too dull to illustrate. There must
be some nice bits in it, and I mean to find the bit where the heroine,
in a pink silk gown, looks at herself in a mirror."

"Well, you'll find no such bit. I haven't illustrated it!" I strove to
keep my voice fairly cool. "I merely took the heroine's name as
indicative of a class, and chose the epoch as characteristic. The book
is dull, old-fashioned."

"Ah, but I might not agree with you there. Is it an historical novel? I
like them, even if they are rather slow. One gets all sorts of ideas
about people of another age."

"It isn't historical." Despite my efforts my voice was growing sharply
anxious, and Miss Jones was beginning to notice my anxiety. "And the
characters in it are not people you would care to have ideas about. It
is merely one of the first attempts to write a psychological study, in
t