“But how can I accept?” said Arabian, quickly adding: “And how can I refuse? Mr.—”
“Drop the Mister, I say.”
“Dick Garstin then.”
“That’s better.”
“I wish to tell you that I am not a connoisseur of art. On the other hand, please, I have an eye for what is fine. Mademoiselle, I hope, will say it is so?”
He looked at Miss Van Tuyn.
“Mr. Arabian made some remarkably cute remarks about the portraits, Dick,” she said in reply to the glance.
“I care for a fine painting so much that really I do not know how to refuse the temptation you offer me—Dick Garstin.”
Garstin poured himself out another whisky.
“I’ll start on it to-morrow,” he said, staring hard at the man who had now become definitely his subject.