“Why, it’s Manfred in the Coliseum!”
Lawrence Newt was confounded. Was Arthur, then, not deceiving himself, after all? Did he really take an interest in all these people only as a painter, and think of them merely as subjects for pictures?
Lawrence Newt was troubled. He had seen in Arthur with delight what he supposed the unconscious beginnings of affection for Hope Wayne. He had pleased himself in bringing them together—of course Amy Waring must be present too when he himself was, that any tête-à-tête which arose might not be interrupted—and he had dreamed the most agreeable dreams. He knew Hope—he knew Arthur—it was evidently the hand of Heaven. He had even mentioned it confidentially to Amy Waring, who was profoundly interested, and who charitably did the same offices for Arthur with Hope Wayne that Lawrence Newt did for the young candidates with her. The conversation about the picture of Diana had only confirmed Lawrence Newt in his conviction that Arthur Merlin really loved Hope Wayne, whether he himself knew it or not.
And now was he all wrong, after all? Ridiculous! How could he be?
He tried to persuade himself that he was not. But he could not forget how persistently Arthur had spoken of Hope only as a fine Diana; and how, after evidently being struck with Abel Newt, he had merely exclaimed, with a kind of suppressed excitement, as if he saw what a striking picture he would make, “Manfred in the Coliseum!”
Lawrence Newt drank a glass of wine, thoughtfully. Then he smiled inwardly.
“It is not the first time I have been mistaken,” thought he. “I shall have to take Amy Waring’s advice about it.”
As he and his friend passed the other table, on their way out, Abel nodded to his uncle; and as Arthur Merlin looked at him carefully, he was very sure that he saw the person whose face so singularly resembled that of Manfred’s in the picture he had given Hope Wayne.
“I am all wrong,” thought Lawrence Newt, ruefully, as they passed out into the street.
“Abel Newt, then, is Hope Wayne’s somebody,” thought Arthur Merlin, as he took his friend’s arm.