“I noticed that there were a great many portraits at the Academy,” said her Ladyship, “portraits of great and famous men.”
“Yes; of men, too, who are famous without being great,” said the doctor, laughing.
“Indeed!” said Lady Martlett. “I thought the two qualities went together.”
“In anyone else,” said Jack, “that would be a vulgar error: in your Ladyship, of course, though it may be an error, it cannot be vulgar.”
“How dearly I should like to box your ears!” thought Lady Martlett, as she gazed at the provoking face before her. “He doesn’t respect me a bit. He doesn’t care for me. The man is a very stone.”
“Did you notice the portraits of some of the fashionable beauties, Doctor Scales?” she continued, ignoring his compliment, and leading him back to the topic on hand.
“O yes,” he said; “several of them, and it set me thinking.”
“No? Really!” said her Ladyship, with a mocking laugh. “Was Doctor Scales touched by the beauty of some of the painted canvases with speaking eyes?”
“No; not a bit,” he said cheerily—“not a bit. It set me wondering how it was that Lady Martlett’s portrait was not on the walls.”
“I am not a fashionable beauty,” said the lady haughtily.