Is it likely that such an insignificant object as a chair, and a small one at that, would succeed in catching my eye ?" Evelyn Forbes laughed, with a joyous mingling of surprise and relief.
Most certainly, Mr.Theydon's manner of speech differed vastly from the disconcerting expression of positive bewilderment, if not actual fright, which marred his entrance.
"Do I really resemble a Romney?
Which one ?" she cried.
"An admitted masterpiece." "Ah, but people who pay compliments deserve to be put on the rack.

I insist on a definition." "Lady Hamilton as Joan of Arc." He drew the bow at random, and was gratified to see that his hearer was puzzled.
"I don't know that particular picture," she said, "but I cannot imagine any model less adapted to the subject." "Romney immortalized the best qualities of both," he answered promptly.
"Please, may I look at the Canaletto which indirectly waylaid me ?" She turned to cross the room, but stopped and faced him again with a suddenness that argued an impulsive temperament.
"Now, I remember," she said.

"Dad told me you had written novels and some essays.

Have you ever really seen Romney's portrait of Lady Hamilton as Joan of Arc ?" Those fine eyes of hers pierced him with a glance of such candid inquiry that he cast pretence to the winds.
"No," he said.
"Then you just invented the comparison as an excuse for colliding with the chair ?" "Yes.

At the same time I throw myself on the mercy of the court." "It was rather clever of you." He laughed, and their eyes met, at very close range.
"May I share the joke ?" said a voice, and Theydon knew, before he turned, that the man he had last seen disappearing around the corner of Innesmore Mansions in a heavy rainstorm was in the room.
"Why did you tell me that Mr.Theydon was a serious scientific person ?" cried the girl.