"Is that the reason she likes you?" Biddy mildly mocked.
"Ah she doesn't like me—couldn't you see it?"
The girl at first said nothing; then she asked: "Is that why she lets you call her 'Miriam'?"
"Oh I don't, to her face."
"Ah only to mine!" laughed Biddy.
"One says that as one says 'Rachel' of her great predecessor."
"Except that she isn't so great, quite yet, is she?"
"Far from it; she's the freshest of novices—she has scarcely been four months on the stage. But no novice has ever been such an adept. She'll go very fast," Peter pursued, "and I daresay that before long she'll be magnificent."
"What a pity you'll not see that!" Biddy sighed after a pause.
"Not see it?"