"She is such a brilliant girl," Mrs. Pope added, "such a splendid character. I can't tell you how it delighted me to hear that Katherine had at last found the rare some one who could really appreciate her. It strengthened my pet theory of the fundamental fitness of things." "Yes," Odd repeated, so vaguely that Mrs. Pope hurriedly wondered if she had been guilty of bad taste, and changed the subject. When Peter reached the Archinards' at half-past six that evening, he found the Captain and Mrs. Archinard alone in the drawing-room. "Hilda not in yet?" he asked. His anxiety was so oppressive that he really could not forbear opening the old subject of grievance. Indeed, Odd fancied that in Mrs. Archinard's jeremiads there was an element of maternal solicitude. That Hilda should voluntarily immolate herself, have no pretty dresses, show herself nowhere--these facts perhaps moved Mrs. Archinard as much as her own neglected condition. At least, so Peter charitably hoped, feeling almost cruel as he deliberately broached the painful subject. Mrs. Archinard now gave a dismal sigh, and the Captain shook his head impatiently as he put down _Le Temps_. Odd went on quite doggedly-- "I didn't know that Hilda sold her pictures. I saw one of them at Mrs. Pope's this afternoon." There could certainly be no indiscretion in the statement, for Mrs. Pope herself had mentioned the fact of Hilda's success as well known. Indeed, although the Captain's face showed an uneasy little change, Mrs. Archinard's retained its undisturbed pathos. "Yes," she said, "oh yes, Hilda has sold several things, I believe. She certainly needs the money. We are not _rich_ people, Peter." Mrs. Archinard had immediately adopted the affectionate intimacy of the Christian name. "And we could hardly indulge Hilda in her artistic career if, to some extent, she did not help herself. I fancy that Hilda makes few demands on her papa's purse, and she must have many expenses. Models are expensive things, I hear. I cannot say that I rejoice in her success. It seems to justify her obstinacy--makes her independent of our desires--our requests." Odd felt that there was a depth of selfish ignorance in these remarks. The Captain's purse he knew by experience to be very nearly mythical, and the Captain's expression at this moment showed to Peter's sharpened apprehension an uncomfortable consciousness. Peter was convinced that, far from making demands on papa's purse, Hilda had replenished it, and further conjectures as to Hilda's egotistic one-sidedness began to shape themselves.