Evie too stamped. "Oh yes, I'll go, and so will you, I promise you—from Pall Mall——"
"Anything you like—only go——"
But as Evie took a step towards the door a little accident turned Louie suddenly as white as paper. Billy's study leaned against the wall; Evie's skirt or foot caught it as she passed; and the canvas fell. Evie gave a short laugh and pushed it with her shoe.
The dear symbol, nay, the very evidence of so many dreamings, that poor thing of wasted smiles and sighs and tears, the pearl from the heart of the oyster-grey——
A kick of her rival's shoe was treatment good enough for it——
It was as if the hives of her own breasts and the heart beneath them had been trodden on.
Louie stepped slowly forward. "No, stop," she said.
She stood for a moment looking down at the picture; then she spoke slowly.
"You were quite right to come," she said. "You have reason to be jealous."
Evie affected not to hear, but she heard. Louie continued: