Meadows's wife a silent, and--be it confessed!--a malicious convulsion.
Such mothers, so self-centred, so set on their own triumphs, with their
intellectual noses so very much in the clouds, deserved such sons! She
promised herself to keep her own counsel, and watch the play.

The sitting lasted for two hours. When it was over, Uncle Charles, all
smiles and satisfaction, went with his visitors to the front door.

He was away some little time, and returned, bubbling, to the studio.

"She's been cross-examining me about her poems! I had to confess I
hadn't read a word of them. And now she's offered to recite next time
she comes! Good Heavens--how can I get out of it? I believe, Doris,
she's hooked that young idiot! She told me she was engaged to him. Do
you know anything of his people?"

The girl accountant suddenly came forward. She looked flushed and
distressed.

"I do!" she said, with energy. "Can't somebody stop that? It will break
their hearts!"

Doris and Uncle Charles looked at her in amazement.

"Whose hearts?" said the painter.

"Lord and Lady Dunstable's."

"You know them?" exclaimed Doris.