His photographic scheme was nothing worse than a lover's not too scrupulous contrivance.

After the refusal of his request to copy her picture he fumed and fretted at the prospect of Somerset's return before any impression had been made on her heart by himself; he swore at Dare, and asked him hotly why he had dragged him into such a hopeless dilemma as this.
'Hopeless?
Somerset must still be kept away, so that it is not hopeless.
I will consider how to prolong his stay.' Thereupon Dare considered.
The time was coming--had indeed come--when it was necessary for Paula to make up her mind about her architect, if she meant to begin building in the spring.

The two sets of plans, Somerset's and Havill's, were hanging on the walls of the room that had been used by Somerset as his studio, and were accessible by anybody.

Dare took occasion to go and study both sets, with a view to finding a flaw in Somerset's which might have been passed over unnoticed by the committee of architects, owing to their absence from the actual site.

But not a blunder could he find.
He next went to Havill; and here he was met by an amazing state of affairs.