She had lately taken up painting in water-colours, having read in a high-class woman's weekly paper that a great many princesses of the European royal houses were cultivating that art.

This was the water-colour morning; and the teacher, a veteran of many exhibitions, of a venerable and jovial aspect, had turned up with his usual punctuality.

He was no great reader of morning papers, and even had he seen the news it is very likely he would not have understood its real purport.

At any rate he turned up, as the governess expected him to do, and the Fynes saw him pass through the fateful door.
He bowed cordially to the lady in charge of Miss de Barral's education, whom he saw in the hall engaged in conversation with a very good-looking but somewhat raffish young gentleman.

She turned to him graciously: "Flora is already waiting for you in the drawing-room." The cultivation of the art said to be patronized by princesses was pursued in the drawing-room from considerations of the right kind of light.