XXVIII. — SUCCESS.
French had made a portrait of the new American ambassador to the Court of St. James and it was shown at the spring exhibition of the Royal Academy. The ambassador and his wife wished to see how it had been hung, but they did not wish to be seen. So they chose an early hour of a chill, rainy May morning to drive in a hansom from their place in Park Lane to Burlington House.
They found the portrait in Room VI, on the line, in a corner, but where it had the benefit of such light as there was. When they entered no one was there; but, as they were standing close to the picture, admiring the energy and simplicity of the strokes of the master’s brush, a crowd swept in and enclosed them.
“Let us go,” Howard said in a low tone.
Just then a man, almost at his shoulder because of the pressure of those behind, said: “Wonderful, isn’t it? I’ve never seen a better example of his work. He had a subject that suited him perfectly.”
“No, let us stay,” Marian whispered in reply to her husband. “They can’t see our faces and I’d like to hear.”
“Yes, it is superb,” came the answer to the man behind them in a voice unmistakably American. “Now, tell me, Saverhill, what sort of a person would you say the ambassador is from that picture? You don’t know him?”
“Never heard of him until I read of his appointment,” replied the first voice.