ne with fame like yourself--who will understand you. Oh Gerty,
hasn't he lovely eyes?"

"Like a gazelle," said the other. "You know what Mr. ---- said--that he
never met the appealing look of Mr. Lemuel's eyes without feeling in his
pockets for a biscuit."

"He wouldn't say anything like that about you, Gerty," Carry said
reproachfully.

"Who wouldn't?"

"Mr. Lemuel."

"Oh, Carry, don't you understand that I am so glad to be allowed to talk
nonsense? I have been all strung up lately--like the string of a violin.
Everything _au grand serieux_ I want to be idle, and to chat, and to
talk nonsense. Where did you get that bunch of stephanotis?"

"Mr. Lemuel brought it last evening. He knew you were coming home
to-day. Oh Gerty, do you know I have seen your portrait, though it isn't
finished yet; and you look--you look like an inspired prophetess. I
never saw anything so lovely!"

"Indeed!" said Miss White, with a smile; but she was pleased.

"When the public see that, they will know what you are really like,
Gerty--instead of buying your photograph in a shop from a collection of
ballet-dancers and circus women. That is where you ought to be--in the
Royal Academy: not in a shop-window with any mountebank. Oh, Gerty, do
you know who is your latest rival in the stationers' windows? The woman
who dresses herself as a mermaid and swims in a transparent tank, below
water--Fin-fin they call her. I suppose you have not been reading the
newspapers?"

"Not much."

"There is a fine collection for you upstairs. And there is an article
about you in the _Islington Young Men's Improvement Association_. It is
signed _Trismegistus_. Oh, it is beautiful, Gerty--quite full of poetry!
It says you are an enchantress striking the rockiest heart, and a well
of pure emotion springs up. It says you have the beauty of Mrs. Siddons
and the genius of Rachel."

"Dear me!"

"Ah, you don't half believe in yourself, Gerty," said the younger
sister, with a critical air. "It is the weak point about you. You
depreciate yourself, and you make light of other people's belief in you.
However, you can't go against your own genius. That is too strong for
you. As soon as you get on the stage, then you forget to laugh at
yourself."

"Really, Carry, has papa been giving you a lecture about me?"

"Oh, laugh away? but you know it is true. And a woman like you--you were
going to throw yourself away on a--"

"Carry! There are some things that are bett