"Come on, Alice, if you're going to scrub before luncheon.

Thank you, Louis; I've had a splendid game--" She stretched out a frank hand to him, going, and the tips of her fingers just brushed his.
His sister gave him a tragic look, which he ignored, and a little later luncheon was on and Cameron garrulous, and Querida his own gentle, expressive, fascinating self, devotedly receptive to any woman who was inclined to talk to him or to listen.
That evening Neville said to his sister: "There's a train at midnight; I don't think I'll stay over--" "Why ?" "I want to be in town early." "Why ?" "The early light is the best." "I thought you'd stopped painting for a while." "I have, practically.

There's one thing I keep on with, in a desultory sort of way--" "What is it ?" "Oh, nothing of importance--" he hesitated--"that Is, it may be important.

I can't be sure, yet." "Will you tell me what it is ?" "Why, yes.

It's a portrait--a study--" "Of whom, dear ?" "Oh, of nobody you know--" "Is it a portrait of Valerie West ?" "Yes," he said, carelessly.
There was a silence; in the starlight his shadowy face was not clearly visible to his sister.
"Are you leaving just to continue that portrait ?" "Yes.