“Another reason?”
“Yes; I’ve never worked on such a big scale. I want to see how those old chaps did the trick; I want to measure myself with the big fellows over there. An artist ought to, once in his life.”
She gave him a wondering look. For the first time his words implied a sense of possible limitation; but his easy tone seemed to retract what they conceded. What he really wanted was fresh food for his self-satisfaction: he was like an army that moves on after exhausting the resources of the country.
Womanlike, she abandoned the general survey of the case for the consideration of a minor point.
“Are you sure you can do that kind of thing?” she asked.
“What kind of thing?”
“The panels.”
He glanced at her indulgently: his self-confidence was too impenetrable to feel the pin-prick of such a doubt.
“Immensely sure,” he said with a smile.
“And you don’t mind taking so much money from her in advance?”