'Then he'd want to come round to the studio. I don't like to put him
off.'

'As you like.... It'll be a very jolly dinner. Johnny and Herbert are
coming. But I daresay Freddy'll ask Walter. He'll do anything I ask
him.'

When lunch was over Cissy and Elsie took each other's arms and went
upstairs together. Mildred heard Cissy ask who she was.

Elsie whispered, 'A pupil of Ralph's. You shouldn't have talked so
openly before her.'

'So his name is Ralph,' Mildred said to herself, and thought that she
liked the name.




IV.


Mildred soon began to perceive and to understand the intimate life of
the galleries, a strange life full of its special idiosyncrasies.
There were titled ladies who came with their maids and commanded
respect from the keeper of the gallery, and there was a lady with
bright yellow hair who occasioned him much anxiety. For she allowed
visitors not only to enter into conversation with her, but if they
pleased her fancy she would walk about the galleries with them and