"Well, I really think I may say it is. It is far inferior to the original in beauty, of course; but I think I have preserved her most delicate features." "Just so. Her hair is of that peculiar colour, and her eyes a curious violet, eh?" "Yes." "This sketch gives one the notion of a tall woman with a full figure." "Yes; she is taller than I, and her figure is thoroughly rounded and graceful." "Ye-es; a very charming sketch, Miss Maurice; and your friend must be very lovely if she at all resembles it." Shortly after, when Mr. Algy Barford had taken his leave, he stopped on the flags in St. Barnabas Square, thus soliloquising: "All right, my dear old boy, my dear old Algy! it's coming on fast--a little sooner than you thought; but that's no matter. Colney Hatch, my dear boy, and a padded room looking out over the railway. That's it; that's your hotel, dear boy! If you ever drank, it might be _del. trem_., and would pass off; but you don't. No, no; to see twice within six months, first the woman herself; and then the portrait of the woman--just married and known to credible witnesses--whom you have firmly believed to be lying in Kensal Green! Colney Hatch, dear old boy; that is the apartment, and nothing else!" CHAPTER IX. MR. AMPTHILL'S WILL. The acquaintance between Margaret and Annie, which commenced so auspiciously, scarcely ripened into intimacy. When Lady Beauport's neuralgia passed away,--and her convalescence was much hurried by the near approach of a specially-grand entertainment given in honour of certain Serene Transparencies then visiting London,--she found that she could not spare Miss Maurice to go so long a distance, to be absent from her and her work for such a length of time. As to calling at Elm Lodge in person, Lady Beauport never gave the project another thought. With the neuralgia had passed away her desire to see that "pretty young person," Mrs. Geoffrey Ludlow; and in sending her card by Annie, Lady Beauport thought she had more than fulfilled any promises and vows of politeness which might have been made by her son in her name.