with thanks, and then absorbs herself in the adoration of the 'Girl
in the Hat.' Then she sighs out: 'It should be called
Diaphaneite, if there is such a word. Ah! This is the last
expression of modernity!' She puts up suddenly her face-a-main and
looks towards the end wall. 'And that--Byzantium itself! Who was
she, this sullen and beautiful Empress?'

"'The one I had in my mind was Theodosia!' Allegre consented to
answer. 'Originally a slave girl--from somewhere.'

"My mother can be marvellously indiscreet when the whim takes her.
She finds nothing better to do than to ask the 'Master' why he took
his inspiration for those two faces from the same model. No doubt
she was proud of her discerning eye. It was really clever of her.
Allegre, however, looked on it as a colossal impertinence; but he
answered in his silkiest tones:

"'Perhaps it is because I saw in that woman something of the women
of all time.'

"My mother might have guessed that she was on thin ice there. She
is extremely intelligent. Moreover, she ought to have known. But
women can be miraculously dense sometimes. So she exclaims, 'Then
she is a wonder!' And with some notion of being complimentary goes
on to say that only the eyes of the discoverer of so many wonders
of art could have discovered something so marvellous in life. I
suppose Allegre lost his temper altogether then; or perhaps he only
wanted to pay my mother out, for all these 'Masters' she had been
throwing at his head for the last two hours. He insinuates with
the utmost politeness: