"Yes, I----" began Langley, again reddening, then interrupting himself abruptly--"If I really thought you remembered, I was--that is, I did not think you would notice it." "Ah! Mr. Langley," said Kate, with a pensive smile, "you feel guilty, or you would not hesitate so much." "Had you there, Bill," cried Mr. Storey, with an agreeable wink; "the ladies are never merciful when they catch us tripping." But Langley deigned no reply. "I do not think Winter is inclined to come back," said he to Kate; "he wrote me a few lines enclosing his last letter to you, in which he says he should like to remain where he is until he had drawn the whole country, natural and architectural, but that Mrs. Winter's absurd prejudices against grease and fleas would, he feared, cut short his enjoyment." "My dear William," cried his sister, raising her hands and eyes to heaven, "what _will_ Miss Vernon think of you mentioning such dreadful low vulgar words. I am sure I am thankful Lady Desmond's not here--what would she say?" "I dare say her ladyship is aware that such an entomological variety exists," returned Langley, drily. "Have you been very busy this summer," asked Kate, changing the subject in compassion to her hostess. "Yes, no--that is, I have been busily idle." "Sketching, and not finishing," suggested Miss Vernon. "That was what Mr. Winter used to call busy idleness." "You and Miss Vernon must look at my studio some day," said Langley to his sister; "I have one or two pretty subjects in progress." "I shall be delighted," cried Kate. "I am always happy in a studio, more so than even in a perfect gallery; besides, a studio always reminds me of Mr. Winter," she added with such enthusiasm that her listeners smiled. "I suppose you used to visit the pictures at Hampton Court frequently?" "Yes, yet not as often as I intended--something always happened to interfere with our visits--and I am so fond of Vandyke: his men and women are so noble-looking, one can hardly associate them with the wretched period in which they lived; but I suppose his paintings picture his own mind rather than the individuals he meant to depict." "Well, I would rather pay for my own portrait than another person's," said Mr. Storey; "and I think Smith has hit off both myself and Mrs. S. right well." "Your pictures are certainly very like," said Miss Vernon politely. "But the most unmitigated daubs," remarked Langley. "I never enjoyed any pictures so much as those at Hampton Court," remarked Mrs. Storey. "But then Lord Effingham told me about them so nicely; he knew them all." "Lord Effingham--a distinguished cicerone, Charlotte," remarked her brother. "He was very well known in the London world some five or six years ago, though one never heard much good of him--has he not been abroad for a long time?" This question was addressed to Miss Vernon, in total disregard of Mrs. Storey's energetic hems and warning frowns when he spoke disparagingly of the earl.