"Humph! I am glad you were interested in my whereabouts."
"But I wasn't in the least."
"Are you sparring as usual, Miss Mott?" asked Mr. Stewart Hubbard, joining them. "Good evening, Mr. Rangely."
"Oh, Mr. Hubbard," Miss Mott said, ignoring the question, "I want to know who is to make the statue of America. It is going to stand opposite our house, so that it will be the first thing I shall see when I look out of the window in the morning, and naturally I am interested."
"Mr. Herman is making a study, and Mr. Irons has been put up to asking this new woman for a model. What is her name? The one whose Galatea made a stir last year."
"Mrs. Greyson," Rangely answered. "I used to know her before she went to Rome."
"Is she clever?" demanded Miss Mott, with a sort of girlish imperiousness which became her very well. "I can't have a statue put up unless it is very good indeed."
"She might take Miss Mott as a model," Mr. Hubbard suggested, smiling.
"For America? Oh, I am too little, and altogether too civilized. I'd do better for a model of Monaco, thank you."
"There is always a good deal of chance about you," Rangely said in her ear, as Mr. Staggchase spoke to Mr. Hubbard and drew his attention away.