“The one nation—er—and the other—yes—the give and take—the give and take. You see my meaning? Yes, yes.”
Miss Schley said nothing. She looked at Lady Holme’s portrait and at hers with serenity, and seemed quite unconscious of the many eyes fastened upon her.
“You feel the strong link, I hope, Pimpernel?” said Mrs. Wolfstein, with her most violent foreign accent. “Hands across the Herring Pond!”
“Mr. Greaves has been too cute for words,” she replied. “I wish Lady Holme could cast her eye on them.”
She looked up at nothing, with a sudden air of seeing something interesting that was happening along way off.
“Philadelphia!” murmured Mrs. Wolfstein, with an undercurrent of laughter.
It was very like Lady Holme’s look when she was singing. Robin Pierce saw it and pressed his lips together. At this moment the crowd shifted and left a gap through which Lady Holme immediately glided towards Ashley Greaves. He saw her and came forward to meet her with eagerness, holding out his hand, and smiling mechanically with even more than his usual intention.
“What a success!” she said.
“If it is, your portrait makes it so.”
“And where is my portrait?”