"But, of course, I don't know.

Mr.Lagrange thinks, though, that it is really a splendid portrait." Mrs.Taine smiled with a confident air, as one might smile at a child.
"Mr.Lagrange, my dear, is a famous novelist--but he really knows very little of pictures." "Perhaps you are right," returned Sibyl, simply.

"But the picture is not to be shown as a portrait of me, at all." Again, that knowing smile.

"So I understand, of course.

Under the circumstances, you would scarcely expect it, would you ?" Sibyl, not in the least understanding what the woman meant, answered doubtfully, "No.