"You lordly box-holder," he said to him, "just let me in. How are you, Lady Ellington? Yes, I'm just back from the Hermitage, to-night only, from three days in the forest with Merivale. How are you, Miss Ellington? I had to come up to-night, or I shouldn't have been able to keep the appointment to-morrow." A sense of utter helplessness seized Madge; she could not even respond by a word to his greeting, for his presence merely was the only thing that mattered, the only thing she loved and dreaded. And he continued: "Half-past two, isn't it?" he said. "I could have come up to-morrow, of course, but it was necessary for me to have a morning's work at the background before I troubled you again." Then Gladys broke in. "Too wonderful, isn't it?" she said, "the portrait, I mean. But, Mr. Dundas, who is that just opposite with rubies? I'm sure you've painted her. That great pink thing there, who must have come from the west coast of Asia Minor. How naughty of me!" But Evelyn apparently condoned the naughtiness; he mentioned the name of the great pink thing, and turned to Madge again. "But by half-past two I shall be ready," he said. "Please, if it is not an impossible request, please be punctual. Art takes so long, you know. Not that life is short. Nobody ever died too soon." She turned to him, the diamond pendant that Philip had sent her that day glittering on the smooth whiteness of her bosom. "I am so sorry," she said, "and I know I ought to have let you know before, Mr. Dundas. But I can't come to-morrow. I wrote you this evening only, I did not know you were out of town, explaining--at least saying--I could not come." Philip--the real, intimate Philip--heard this. And it was he only, the lover of this girl, who spoke in reply. "We have settled that I shall come instead," he said. "So your time won't be wasted, Evelyn. You have to paint me too, you know, and if you want it to be characteristic, make a study of a telephone and a tape-machine. Half-past two, I think you said." There came a sudden hush over the crowded house as the lights went down. Philip laid his hand on Evelyn's shoulder, as he sat in the front of the box between the two ladies. "Half-past two, then, to-morrow," he repeated.