original. "It represents a young lady," he said, "whom I should not
pretend to judge off-hand."

"She may be a fool, but you are not sure. Many thanks! You have seen me
half a dozen times. You are either very slow or I am very deep."

"I am certainly slow," said Rowland. "I don't expect to make up my mind
about you within six months."

"I give you six months if you will promise then a perfectly frank
opinion. Mind, I shall not forget; I shall insist upon it."

"Well, though I am slow, I am tolerably brave," said Rowland. "We shall
see."

Christina looked at the bust with a sigh. "I am afraid, after all," she
said, "that there 's very little wisdom in it save what the artist has
put there. Mr. Hudson looked particularly wise while he was working; he
scowled and growled, but he never opened his mouth. It is very kind of
him not to have represented me gaping."

"If I had talked a lot of stuff to you," said Roderick, roundly, "the
thing would not have been a tenth so good."

"Is it good, after all? Mr. Mallet is a famous connoisseur; has he not
come here to pronounce?"

The bust was in fact a very happy performance, and Roderick had risen to
the level of his subject. It was thoroughly a portrait, and not a vague
fantasy executed on a graceful theme, as the busts of pretty women, in