Triplet justified the baronet's opinion. Without any sort of sequency he now informed Mrs. Vane that the benevolent lady was to sit to him for her portrait.
Here was a new attention of Ernest's. How good he was, and how wicked and ungrateful she!
“What! are you a painter too?” she inquired.
“From a house front to an historical composition, madam.”
“Oh, what a clever man! And so Ernest commissioned you to paint a portrait?”
“No, madam; for that I am indebted to the lady herself.”
“The lady herself?”
“Yes, madam; and I expected to find her here. Will you add to your kindness by informing me whether she has arrived? Or she is gone—”
“Who, sir? (Oh, dear! not my portrait! Oh, Ernest!)”
“Who, madam!” cried Triplet; “why, Mrs. Woffington!”