“What is that you say, please?”
“I only—I thought it was arranged that the picture was to be exhibited,” she said, falteringly.
“Oh, no. I shall not permit Dick Garstin to exhibit that picture.”
Now intense curiosity was born in her and seemed for the moment to submerge her uneasiness and fear.
“But wasn’t it understood?” she said.
“Please, what do you say was understood?”
“Didn’t Mr. Garstin say he meant to exhibit the picture and afterwards give it to you?”
“But I say that I shall not permit Dick Garstin to exhibit my picture.”
“Why won’t you allow it?” she asked.
In her curiosity she was at last regaining some of her usual self-possession. She scented a struggle between these two men, both of them of tough fibre, both of them, she believed, far from scrupulous, both of them likely to be enormously energetic and determined when roused.