"Romney immortalized the best qualities of both," he answered
promptly. "Please, may I look at the Canaletto which indirectly
waylaid me?"

She turned to cross the room, but stopped and faced him again with a
suddenness that argued an impulsive temperament.

"Now, I remember," she said. "Dad told me you had written novels and
some essays. Have you ever really seen Romney's portrait of Lady
Hamilton as Joan of Arc?"

Those fine eyes of hers pierced him with a glance of such candid
inquiry that he cast pretence to the winds.

"No," he said.

"Then you just invented the comparison as an excuse for colliding with
the chair?"

"Yes. At the same time I throw myself on the mercy of the court."

"It was rather clever of you."

He laughed, and their eyes met, at very close range.

"May I share the joke?" said a voice, and Theydon knew, before he
turned, that the man he had last seen disappearing around the corner
of Innesmore Mansions in a heavy rainstorm was in the room.