"None, if he is sure."
"He is perfectly sure."
"He had better let her alone, then. He had better not try."
"I am going to try. But I thank you for your advice more than if I were going to take it."
They parted laughing; and Mrs. Westley was contented to be left with the mystery which she believed was no mystery to her.
Ludlow went home and wrote to Cornelia:
"Dear Miss Saunders: I hear you are not going to try to get your picture into the Exhibition. I will not pretend not to understand why, and you would not wish me to; so I feel free to say that you are making a mistake. You ought to offer your picture; I think it would be accepted, and you have no right to forego the chance it would give you, for the only reason you can have. I know that Mr. Wetmore would be glad to advise you about it; and I am sure you will believe that I have not asked him to do so.
"Yours sincerely,
"W. Ludlow."
Cornelia turned this letter in many lights, and tried to take it in many ways; but in the end she could only take it in the right way, and she wrote back: