AT THE ACADEMY SOIRÉE.
"How well your Picture bears the artificial light!" i.e., "Couldn't look worse than it does by daylight."
"Mustn't keep you on the stairs. Such heaps of your friends asking for you upstairs;" i.e., "Got rid of him, thank goodness!"
"Here you are at last! Been dodging you from room to room!" i.e., "To keep out of your way. Caught at last, worse luck!"
"You look as if you had just stepped out of a picture-frame!" i.e., "Wish you'd step back into one!"
"Not seen Mr. O'Kew's picture? You must see it. Only three rooms from here, and no crowd there now. So go and bring me back word what you think;" i.e., "Now to flee!"