"The old trouble. He says I've had quite long enough to make my way as an artist, if I'm going to make it at all. In his opinion, I am simply wasting my time and his money. No cash results; that is to say, no success. Of course, his view." The girl kept silence. Marsh shifted his position slightly, so as to get a view of her face. "Somebody else's too, I'm half afraid," he murmured dubiously. Madeline was thinking of a look she had caught on Miss Doran's face when the portfolio disclosed its contents; of Miss Doran's silence; of certain other person' looks and silence--or worse than silence. The knitting of her brows became deeper; Marsh felt an uneasy movement in her frame. "Speak plainly," he said. "It's far better." "It's very hot, Clifford. Sit on a chair; we can talk better." "I understand." He moved a little away from her, and looked round the room with a smile of disillusion. "You needn't insult me," said Madeline, but not with the former petulance; "Often enough you have done that, and yet I don't think I have given you cause." Still crouching upon the stool, he clasped his hands over his knee, jerked his head back--a frequent movement, to settle his hair--and smiled with increase of bitterness. "I meant no insult," he said, "either now or at other times, though you are always ready to interpret me in that way. I merely hint at the truth, which would sound disagreeable in plain terms." "You mean, of course, that I think of nothing--have never thought of anything--but your material prospects?" "Why didn't you marry me a year ago, Mad?" "Because I should have been mad indeed to have done so. You admit it would have caused your step-father at once to stop his allowance. And pray what would have become of us?" "Exactly. See your faith in me, brought to the touchstone!" "I suppose the present day would have seen you as it now does?" "Yes, if you had embarrassed me with lack of confidence. Decidedly not, if you had been to me the wife an artist needs. My future has lain in your power to make or mar. You have chosen to keep me in perpetual anxiety, and now you take a suitable opportunity to overthrow me altogether; or rather, you try to. We will see how things go when I am free to pursue my course untroubled."