"I wonder," said Mrs. Wyburn nervously--one could see she was not listening, and thought Miss Westbury was merely drivelling on--"whether you will come to the point at once? It would be a great comfort if you would. I have been feeling quite anxious about your visit. I rather foolishly took some coffee after lunch, and it kept me awake the whole afternoon--either that, or my anxiety." "If you take coffee after lunch," replied Miss Westbury, "you should take it made as I do. Two teaspoonfuls of coffee in a large breakfast-cup full of hot water, a saccharine tablet, and a teaspoonful of condensed----" "What was it you really heard, Millie dear, about my daughter-in-law?" interrupted Mrs. Wyburn sharply. Here the footman brought in the tea. Miss Westbury frowned, and ostentatiously changed the subject. "Have you been to the Grafton? I was persuaded to go. I think, myself, there's a great deal too much fuss made about pictures nowadays. When one thinks of the money that's wasted on them, when it might be sent to a hospital, it makes one's blood boil! And some of those that are made the most fuss about--both the Old Masters and the very new ones--these post-men, or whatever they're called--seem to me perfect nonsense. A daub and a splash--no real trouble taken--and then you're expected to rave about it. There's one man--some one wants me to buy a picture of his--he paints all his pictures in tiny squares of different colours; when you're close you can't see anything, but it seems that if you walk five feet away it forms into a kind of pattern. It seems it's the tessellated school, and they tell me that in a few years nothing else will count. And what I thought was a mountain in a mist turns out to be 'A Nun with cows grazing.' Silly nonsense I call it!" "Was the nun grazing, or the cows?" asked Mrs. Wyburn.