Silvia glanced sideways at him.
“Well—I don’t find I go and look at it for pleasure,” she said. “Not often at least, not every day. Do you like it?”
“I think it’s the largest piece of rubbish I ever saw. Now try again to express your opinion.”
Silvia gave a sigh of relief.
“Oh, I do agree!” she said. “It’s the most appalling. Now, isn’t it?”
“Question number two,” said Peter. “Do you think you will like the others any better? Do you, in fact, look forward to seeing the whole wall of the gallery covered with allegorical Mainwarings?”
“Not in the very smallest degree. But we’ve got to have them, haven’t we?”
“I don’t think so,” said he. “In fact, from a letter I have received from my father, I gather that he doesn’t consider he made a contract for them at all. It’s clear from what he says that somebody else wants to buy them at a higher rate, considerably higher, than your mother paid for the first. In fact, he alludes to the price she paid for it as a pittance. By the way, what did she pay for it?”
Silvia looked sideways at him again.