Miriam looked at him in the grand manner. "Does she leave you alone like that?" "She thought I should like it--I should be more free to paint. You see I am." "Yes, perhaps it's good for _me_. Have you got her portrait?" Miriam asked. "She doesn't like me to paint her." "Really? Perhaps then she won't like you to paint me." "That's why I want to be quick!" laughed Nick. "Before she knows it?" "Shell know it to-morrow. I shall write to her." The girl faced him again portentously. "I see you're afraid of her." But she added: "Mention my name; they'll give you the box at the office." Whether or no Nick were afraid of Mrs. Dallow he still waved away this bounty, protesting that he would rather take a stall according to his wont and pay for it. Which led his guest to declare with a sudden flicker of passion that if he didn't do as she wished she would never sit to him again. "Ah then you have me," he had to reply. "Only I _don't_ see why you should give me so many things." "What in the world have I given you?" "Why an idea." And Nick looked at his picture rather ruefully. "I don't mean to say though that I haven't let it fall and smashed it." "Ah an idea--that _is_ a great thing for people in our line. But you'll see me much better from the box and I'll send you Gabriel Nash." She got into the hansom her host's servant had fetched for her, and as Nick turned back into his studio after watching her drive away he laughed at the conception that they were in the same "line."