e to see him again sooner than
they had arranged. She had taken a step forward, but she had done no
more, stopping short at the sight of the strange woman, so divested of
visiting-gear that she looked half-undressed, who lounged familiarly in
the middle of the room and over whom Nick had been still more familiarly
hanging. Julia's eyes rested on this embodied unexpectedness, and as
they did so she grew pale--so pale that Nick, observing it,
instinctively looked back to see what Miriam had done to produce such an
effect. She had done nothing at all, which was precisely what was
embarrassing; she only stared at the intruder, motionless and superb.
She seemed somehow in easy possession of the place, and even at that
instant Nick noted how handsome she looked; so that he said to himself
inaudibly, in some deeper depth of consciousness, "How I should like to
paint her that way!" Mrs. Dallow's eyes moved for a single moment to her
friend's; then they turned away--away from Miriam, ranging over the
room.

"I've got a sitter, but you mustn't mind that; we're taking a rest. I'm
delighted to see you"--he was all cordiality. He closed the door of the
studio behind her; his servant was still at the outer door, which was
open and through which he saw Julia's carriage drawn up. This made her
advance a little further, but still she said nothing; she dropped no
answer even when Nick went on with a sense of awkwardness: "When did you
come back? I hope nothing has gone wrong. You come at a very interesting
moment," he continued, aware as soon as he had spoken of something in
his words that might have made her laugh. She was far from laughing,
however; she only managed to look neither at him nor at Miriam and to
say, after a little, when he had repeated his question about her
return:

"I came back this morning--I came straight here."

"And nothing's wrong, I hope?"

"Oh no--everything's all right," she returned very quickly and without
expression. She vouchsafed no explanation of her premature descent and
took no notice of the seat Nick offered her; neither did she appear to
hear him when he begged her not to look yet at the work on the easel--it
was in such a dreadful state. He was conscious, as he phrased it, that
this request gave to Miriam's position, directly in front of his canvas,
an air of privilege which her neglect to recognise in any way Mrs.
Dallow's entrance or her importance did nothing to correct. But that
mattered les