"That," said Dearborn with spirit, "is rotten. Now, I will grant you that, Tony. It's rotten for her. Things have got so mixed up in your scenario that you cannot frankly go and tell her what a hog he is. That is what ought to be done, though. She ought to know what kind of a cheat and poor sort she is going to marry. In real life or drama the simple thing never happens." Dearborn smiled finely. "She ought to know, but you can't tell her." "No," said his friend slowly, "nor would I. But neither can I meet him in her house or anywhere else. I think I should strike him." "You didn't strike him, though," said Dearborn, meaningly, "when you had a good impersonal chance." "I wish I had." "I thought you told me they were all going to Rome?" "Mrs. Faversham doesn't want to go." "Ah," murmured Dearborn, nodding, "she doesn't." "No." Fairfax did not seem to observe his friend's tone. "She is mightily set on having me meet Cedersholm. She wants to have him patronize me, help me!" He laughed dryly and walked up and down the studio into the cold, away from the fire, and then back to Dearborn in his dressing-gown and slippers. "Patronize me, encourage me, pat me on the back--put me in the way of meeting men of the world of art and letters, possibly work with him. She has all sorts of kindly patronizing schemes. But she doesn't know that I have been hungry and cold, and have been housed and fed by her money. Perhaps she does, though," he cried furiously to Dearborn. "No doubt she does. Do you think she does, Bob?" "No, no--don't be an ass, Tony, old man." "You see, now don't you, that I can't stay in Paris, that I can't meet that man and knock him down--not tell her that I am not the poor insignificant creature that she thinks, that without me Cedersholm could not have whipped up his old brain and his tired imagination to have done the work that brought him so marked a success. I would have to tell her what I did, and that, crude and unschooled as I was, she would have to see that he was afraid of me, afraid of my future and my talent. Oh, Dearborn!" he cried, throwing up his arms. Dearborn left his chair and went to Fairfax and put his hand on his shoulder. "That's right," he said heartily, "blurt it all out, old man. Some day, when the right time comes, you will let it out to him." Fairfax leaned on Dearborn's arm. "There were eight of us at dinner to-night," he said, "and Cedersholm was the general topic. He is much admired. He is to have the Legion of Honour. Much of what they said about him was just, of course, perfectly just and fair, but it sickened me. They were enthusiastic about his character, his generosity to his pupils, his sympathy with struggling artists, and one man, who had been at the unveiling of the Sphinx, spoke of my Beasts." Dearborn felt Antony's hand trembling on his arm.