“It was much easier than you think. I simply missed an opportunity—”
“That a sign-painter would have seen!”
“Very likely. In fighting shy of the obvious one may miss the significant—”
“—And when I got back from Paris,” the pretty woman was heard to wail, “I found all the women here were wearing the very models I’d brought home with me!”
Mrs. Mellish, as became a vigilant hostess, got up and shuffled her guests; and the question of Yard’s portrait was dropped.
I left the house with Lillo; and on the way down Fifth Avenue, after one of his long silences, he suddenly asked:
“Is that what is generally said of my picture of Vard? I don’t mean in the newspapers, but by the fellows who know?”
I said it was.
He drew a deep breath. “Well,” he said, “it’s good to know that when one tries to fail one can make such a complete success of it.”
“Tries to fail?”