'So you are here, Elsie,' and she stared at Mildred.
'Let me introduce you to Miss Lawson. Miss Lawson, Miss Cissy Clive.'
'I'm as hungry as a hawk,' Cissy said, and she selected the plate on which there was most beef.
'I haven't seen you here before, Miss Lawson. Is this your first day?'
'Yes, this is my first day.'
They took their food to the nearest table and Elsie asked Cissy if she had finished her copy of Etty's 'Bather.' Cissy told how the old gentleman in charge of the gallery had read her a lecture on the subject. He did not like to see such pictures copied, especially by young women. Copies of such pictures attracted visitors. But Cissy had insisted, and he had put her and the picture into a little room off the main gallery, where she could pursue her nefarious work unperceived.
The girls laughed heartily. Elsie asked for whom Cissy was making the copy.
'For a friend of Freddy's—a very rich fellow. Herbert is going to get him to give me a commission for a set of nude figures. Freddy has just come back from Monte Carlo. He has lost all his money…. He says he's "stony" and doesn't know how he'll pull through.'
'Was he here this morning?'
'He ran in for a moment to see me…. I'm dining with him to-night.'