To which he, no longer smiling—
“Who’s Reynolds?”
“Never heard of Sir Josh——”
“Oh, yes. I didn’t know you meant him. Of course, I’ve heard of him. What made him say that?”
“I’m not sure; but it may have been that he thought if you saw a real man you wouldn’t say, ‘He looks as if you could walk round him,’ and of course you wouldn’t.”
He, smiling anew—
“No, perhaps not.”
“Well, then”—she was now in fine pedagogical vein—“looking at a man or woman in a picture, you should feel just what you would feel looking at a real man or woman. That’s what I understand by it, dear.”
“You’re awfully clever, darling, and so was Sir Joshua, no doubt; but it’s not human nature to feel towards a man or woman in a picture just what you would feel towards a real man or woman.”
As he said this, the exponent of human nature walked round the girl by his side, then caught her in his arms and kissed her. When this demonstration was over, she said—