"I don't suppose she has. I don't even know whether she's on the way to it."
"How about the chapel at Bartles?"
Spence shook his head and laughed, and the dialogue came to an end.
The next morning all started for Rome.
CHAPTER VII
LEARNING AND TEACHING
Easter was just gone by. The Spences had timed their arrival in Rome so as to be able to spend a few days with certain friends, undisturbed by bell-clanging and the rush of trippers, before at length returning to England. Their hotel was in the Babuino. Mallard, who was uncertain about his movements during the next month or two, went to quarters with which he was familiar in the Via Bocca di Leone. He brought his Paestum picture to the hotel, but declined to leave it there. Mallard was deficient in those properties of the showman which are so necessary to an artist if he would make his work widely known and sell it for substantial sums; he hated anything like private exhibition, and dreaded an offer to purchase from any one who had come in contact with him by way of friendly introduction.
"I'm not satisfied with it, now I come to look at it again. It's nothing but a rough sketch."
"But Seaborne will be here this afternoon," urged Spence. "He will be grateful if you let him see it."