ng."
She examined them attentively awhile. "To me they are not very
intelligible, though I have a vague idea of their purpose."

"They are mere notes," he explained. "If you will come here by the
window and get the point of view, I think I can make them perfectly
intelligible."

She came and stood by his side, and one by one he took up the little
canvasses, explaining his tones and masses and relative values. As he
spoke his words seemed to evoke a strange life from the blurs and brush
marks. A splash of colour changed before her eyes into an omnibus; a
darker blob into a brougham; vistas and spaces, buildings and foliage
stood revealed out of chaos. She listened with a pretty interest, her
lips daintily parted, her breath coming lightly, yet her features
composed into a characteristic stateliness--of which catching a sudden
glimpse as she brushed close to him, he mentally registered the judgment
"surpassingly fine!" He was glad he had caught that aspect; it summed
her up in a way so perfectly. There was his Salon picture!

"And while you have been listening I have been studying you," he
confessed, as he placed the sketches aside.

"I should have thought you knew me by heart."

"You are not so definite and limited. Beauty is always flashing
surprises on the eye that can see."

"I think I like that," she said gaily. "I must bear it in mind.... It's
only a toy easel," she flew off as he drew it forward. "In spite of its
excellent preservation, it is a relic of my childhood: in the family I
was supposed to have talent, so an aunt gave it to me for a birthday
present, pegs and all, to take into the country and sketch all sorts of
pretty bits. There was a little stool that went with it."

"It will serve admirably--without the stool," he added, with a smile. "I
should like you to stand with the folding-door as a background. I think
we're lucky to have such an interesting stretch of panelling in the
room. We must get all the light on it we can."

She tripped down the room gaily, and stood as he indicated. Then he
manipulated the blinds and the curtain till a clear, soft light, melting
gradually into the surrounding greyer tones, fell on the wood-work, and
Lady Betty stood illuminated with a suggestion of airy phantasm.

"The face a shade more to the left," he commanded. "There! Now I have
caught you again."

He worked with an appearance of rapidity. "A very dream of elusiveness!"
he exclaimed presently. "I must sei