"There is also, perhaps," laughed Peter, "a kind of intangible
sense of a liberty taken. I'm bound to say I think Wildmay was
decidedly at his ease. To appropriate in that cool fashion the
personality of a total stranger! But artists are the most
unprincipled folk unhung. Ils prennent leur bien la, ou ils le
trouvent."

"Oh, no," said the Duchessa, "I think she was fair game. One
can carry delicacy too far. He was entitled to the benefits of
his discovery--for, after all, it was a discovery, was n't it?
You have said yourself how indispensable the eye of the
beholder is--'the seeing eye.' I think, indeed, the whole
affair speaks extremely well for Mr. Wildmay. It is not every
man who would be capable of so purely intellectual a passion.
I suppose one must call his feeling for her a passion? It
indicates a distinction in his nature. He can hardly be a mere
materialist. But--but I think it's heart-rending that he never
met her."

"Oh, but that's the continuation of the story," said Peter.
"He did meet her in the end, you know."

"He did meet her!" cried the Duchessa, starting up, with a
sudden access of interest, whilst her eyes lightened. "He did
meet her? Oh, you must tell me about that."

And just at this crisis the Cardinal and Emilia appeared,
climbing the terrace steps.