"I should think he'd be very touched. He might even believe it had been there all the time."
"Don't be sarcastic," said Ora good-humouredly. "I'll ask Janet where I've put it."
Janet, being summoned and questioned, knew where Miss Pinsent had put the photograph, or anyhow where it was to be found. In a few minutes she produced it.
"It is handsome, you see," said Ora, handing it across to Ashley. She appeared anxious for a favourable opinion from him.
The face was certainly handsome. The features were straight, the eyes large, the brow well formed; there was no great appearance of intellect or resolution, but the smile was amiable. Ashley handed it back with a nod of assent, and Ora set it on the mantel-piece. Ashley's bitterness overflowed.
"Put it in the frame instead of mine," he said, stretching out his hand to take his own portrait.
In an instant Ora was across to the table and snatched up the picture. She held it close to her with both hands and stood fronting him defiantly.
"No," she said, "no. You shan't touch it. Nobody shall touch it."
He leant back with a smile of despairing amusement. She put down the portrait and came close to him, looking at him intently; then she dropped on her knees beside him and took his hand between hers.
"Fancy you daring to think that!" she said. A look of terror came into her eyes. "You're not going to be like that?" she moaned. "I can't go on if you're going to be like that."