'That is looked at from a very low plane, Monsignor; unusually low for you.'
'I can imagine so many things worse for her, that is all,' said Melville, with an apology in his tone. 'Certainly she ought to have a mate like a shepherd in Theocritus' pastorals, but as those shepherds exist not, at least this side of the Alps——'
'Why a shepherd at all?'
'Because they are better than hunters,' said Melville curtly.
Loswa smiled.
'Monsignor is prejudiced to-day,' said his hostess. 'Decidedly this Galatea must be worth seeing, and the island itself sounds idyllic. I did not know there was anything so near us still so like Bernardin de St. Pierre. Dear Melville, go and bring your treasure to us just as she is; just as Loswa has sketched her, red cap, bare feet, and striped sea-gown. The moment these people are endimanchées they are horrible.'
'She does not belong to "those people,"' said Melville, a little impatiently. 'Her mother was an actress of Paris. I think you might dress her how you would, she would look well. She has a patrician look like those girls of Magna Grecia, who are as ignorant as the stones they tread, but have the port of goddesses.'
'I will see this especial young goddess,' said Nadine, who never relinquished a whim when it encountered opposition.
Melville was seriously annoyed.
'Will you make Gros Louis more acceptable to her?' he said angrily.