“At least I have seen some of your sketches and studies.”
“Some of my sketches—none of my studies.”
“But you make use of your sketches for your pictures, do you not?”
“Never of such as you have seen. They are only a slight antidote to my pictures.”
“I cannot understand you.”
“I do not wonder at that. But I would rather, I repeat, say nothing about my pictures till you see some of them.”
“But how am I to have that pleasure, then?”
“You go to London sometimes, do you not?”
“Very rarely. More rarely still when the Royal Academy is open.”
“That does not matter much. My pictures are seldom to be found there.”