withdrawn, the young man went on--

'Colonel Staff said a funny thing to me yesterday about these very poems.
He asked me if I knew her, and--'

'Her? Why, he knows that it is a lady all the time, and we were only
just now doubting whether the sex of the writer could be really what it
seems. Shame, Ladywell!' said his friend Neigh.

'Ah, Mr. Ladywell,' said another, 'now we have found you out. You know
her!'

'Now--I say--ha-ha!' continued the painter, with a face expressing that
he had not at all tried to be found out as the man possessing
incomparably superior knowledge of the poetess. 'I beg pardon really,
but don't press me on the matter. Upon my word the secret is not my own.
As I was saying, the Colonel said, "Do you know her?"--but you don't care
to hear?'

'We shall be delighted!'

'So the Colonel said, "Do you know her?" adding, in a most comic way,
"Between U. and E., Ladywell, I believe there is a close
affinity"--meaning me, you know, by U. Just like the Colonel--ha-ha-ha!'

The older men did not oblige Ladywell a second time with any attempt at
appreciation; but a weird silence ensued, during which the smile upon
Ladywell's face became frozen to painful permanence.

'Meaning by E., you know, the "E" of the poems--heh-heh!' he added.