"All but that study of a head. As you see, it is scarcely finished."
"It is the one I should like to purchase. You say it is not for sale?"
"No, Mrs. Varick."
"It is very clever," commented Pauline, almost as though she addressed her own thoughts. She turned her face toward Cora's; it wore an indefinite flickering sort of smile. "Has it any name?"
"Oh, no; it is a mere study."
"I like it extremely.... By the way, is it a portrait?"
Cora did not reply for several seconds. She had begun to put little touches upon her canvas again—or to seem as if she were so putting them.
"It's not good enough to be called anything," she presently replied.
"I want it," said Pauline. She was looking straight at the picture—a small square of rather recklessly rich color. "I want it very much indeed. I ... I will give you a considerable sum for it."
She named the sum that she was willing to give, and in an admirably cool, loitering voice. It was something that surpassed any price ever proposed to Cora Dares for one of her paintings, by several hundreds of dollars.