"She's an actress: it's her profession. Don't you remember her that day at Peter's in Paris? She's already a celebrity; she has great talent; she's engaged at a theatre here and is making a sensation. As I tell you, I saw her last night." "You needn't tell me," Julia returned, looking up at him with a face of which the intense, the tragic sadness startled him. He had been standing before her, but at this he instantly sat down close, taking her passive hand. "I want to, please; otherwise it must seem so odd to you. I knew she was coming when I wrote to you the day before yesterday. But I didn't tell you then because I didn't know how it would turn out, and I didn't want to exult in advance over a poor little attempt that might come to nothing. Moreover, it was no use speaking of the matter at all unless I told you exactly how it had come about," Nick went on, explaining kindly and copiously. "It was the result of a visit unexpectedly paid me by Gabriel Nash." "That man--the man who spoke to me?" Her memory of him shuddered into life. "He did what he thought would please you, but I daresay it didn't. You met him in Paris and didn't like him; so I judged best to hold my tongue about him." "Do _you_ like him?" "Very much." "Great heaven!" Julia ejaculated, almost under her breath. "The reason I was annoyed was because, somehow, when you came in, I suddenly had the air of having got out of those visits and shut myself up in town to do something that I had kept from you. And I have been very unhappy till I could explain." "You don't explain--you can't explain," Mrs Dallow declared, turning on her companion eyes which, in spite of her studied stillness, expressed deep excitement. "I knew it--I knew everything; that's why I came." "It was a sort of second-sight--what they call a brainwave," Nick smiled. "I felt uneasy, I felt a kind of call; it came suddenly, yesterday. It was irresistible; nothing could have kept me this morning." "That's very serious, but it's still more delightful. You mustn't go away again," said Nick. "We must stick together--forever and ever." He put his arm round her, but she detached herself as soon as she felt its pressure. She rose quickly, moving away, while, mystified, he sat looking up at her as she had looked a few moments before at him. "I've thought it all over; I've been thinking of it all day," she began. "That's why I didn't come in." "Don't think of it too much; it isn't worth it." "You like it more than anything else. You do--you can't deny it," she went on. "My dear child, what are you talking about?" Nick asked, gently... "That's what you like--doing what you were this morning; with women lolling, with their things off, to be painted, and people like that man." Nick slowly got up, hesitating. "My dear Julia, apart from the surprise this morning, do you object to the living model?" "Not a bit, for you." "What's the inconvenience then, since in my studio they're only for me?"