'Formidable! Dear no; one of the pleasantest girls I know.'
In another minute Earle found himself part of the procession filing down to dinner, with a shapely hand upon his arm. After his remark of last night he felt unaccountably ill at ease, and was racking his brain for something to say; for 'I daren't talk weather to a strong-minded woman,' he thought; but when they were seated at table she relieved him by saying in her straightforward way: 'Are you Mr Earle the artist? Mrs De Lacy runs on so fast one does not carry away clear ideas from her.'
'Yes, I am. You did not hear then that I am pledged to paint her portrait?'
As he spoke he made so rueful a face that Miss Stirling laughed outright, but checked herself, saying with compunction: 'It is not nice of me to laugh at my hostess! And she really has been very kind to me.'
'O yes, she is good-natured enough! Still—in this instance allow me to say—the obligation is more on her side than yours.'
'Why? I don't see that.'
'Have you not found out then, yet, that our friend has a weakness for collecting celebrities at her house?'
'But then I am not one; so that does not apply. I suppose,' she added, looking up at him with an arch expression, he was quite ashamed of finding most winning, 'that accounts for you being here!'
'Do you really mean you do not consider yourself a celebrity?' he asked rather sarcastically.
'I don't say what I don't mean,' she answered coldly. 'You think, I suppose, whenever a woman "speaks in public" it is to shew herself off?'