"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."
"Do you not care to send them there?"
"I send one, at least, every year. But they are rarely accepted."
"Why?"
This was a very improper question, I thought; but if Wynnie had thought so she would not have put it. He hesitated a little before he replied—