her very furs and laces,
the frou-frou of her skirts, the scent upon her pocket-handkerchief. He
had numbered the hairs of her head, almost."

Again the Duchessa mused for a while in silence, opening and shutting
her fan, and gazing into its opals.

"I am thinking of it from the woman's point of view," she said, by
and by. "To have played such a part in a man's life--and never to have
dreamed it! Never even, very likely, to have dreamed that such a man
existed--for it's entirely possible she didn't notice him, on those
occasions when he saw her. And to have been the subject of such a
novel--and never to have dreamed that, either! To have read the novel
perhaps--without dreaming for an instant that there was any sort of
connection between Pauline and herself! Or else--what would almost be
stranger still--not to have read the novel, not to have heard of it! To
have inspired such a book, such a beautiful book--yet to remain in sheer
unconscious ignorance that there was such a book! Oh, I think it is even
more extraordinary from the woman's point of view than from the man's.
There is something almost terrifying about it. To have had such an
influence on the destiny of someone you've never heard of! There's a
kind of intangible sense of a responsibility."

"There is also, perhaps," laughed Peter, "a kind of intangible sense of
a liberty taken. I'm bound to say I think Wildmay was decidedly at his
ease. To appropriate in that cool fashion the personality of a total
stranger! But artists are the most unprincipled folk unhung. Ils
prennent leur bien la, ou ils le trouvent."

"Oh, no," said the Duchessa, "I think she was fair game. One can carry
delicacy too far. He was entitled to the benefits of his discovery--for,
after all, it was a discovery, was n't it? You have said yourself how
indispensable the eye of the beholder is--'the seeing eye.' I think,
indeed, the whole affair speaks extremely well for Mr. Wildmay. It is
not every man who would be capable of so purely intellectual a passion.
I suppose one must call his feeling for her a passion? It indicates a
distinction in his nature. He can hardly be a mere materialist. But--but
I think it's heart-rending that he never met her."

"Oh, but that's the continuation of the story," said Peter. "He did meet
her in the end, you know."

"He did meet her!" cried the Duchessa, starting up, with a sudden access
of interest, whilst her eyes lightened. "He did meet her? Oh, you mu