Pay! Horrible humiliation, of which he had never thought, and yet which he dared not refuse! He murmured something about waiting, but Kitty had already her little purse in her hand, and was counting out the shillings. It seemed to him as if he hardly knew where he was, as he went out of the room with reluctant feet, and down the oak staircase into the ground between the house and the Hospital, where the old men stood about or sat in the warmly sheltered corners. CHAPTER FOUR. DISCOVERY. Kitty Lascelles watched her model out of the room with some intentness. When she turned away at last, she gave a little troubled sigh, and looked at Bell, standing before her picture. Bell answered the look by an extremely brief question. "Well?" "Bell," said the other girl, in a very low voice, "does it strike you that there is anything odd about that--Italian?" "Odd?" repeated Bell. "I can't make him out," said Kitty, uneasily. "It must be fancy, of course, but still I don't really think he is quite what he seems." "In what way?" "You'll laugh, Bell, but--do you think he looks like a common man? He doesn't talk like one, at any rate. I think it is just as well he is not coming again. I--" "Well," interrupted her friend, "what do you say to his hands?" "Then, that struck you too?" exclaimed Kitty eagerly. "Why what is it?" For Bell had flung herself into a chair in a sudden paroxysm of laughter, so long and so unchecked that for a time she could not speak. "So you suspect at last?" she cried. "Oh, Kitty, Kitty!" "What do you mean?" cried the girl. "Bell, I shall shake you if you are so dreadfully silly. What do you mean? What do you know? Oh, Bell, don't be provoking!" "But I want you to guess. I shan't tell you until you have had at least six guesses. Who do you suppose--only you never will suppose, that's the worst of it!--still, who, of all unlikely persons, has been your model?" Kitty drew herself up. "I don't know; and if you knew and did not tell me, I am not sure that I shall ever forgive you." This terrible threat appeared in no way to disconcert her friend. "Guess." Kitty shook her head, and walked to the window. "Come back, or I won't tell you." Kitty hesitated; then marched back. "Tell me directly." "It was Mr Everitt himself." "Bell!" The hot colour surged up all over the girl's face and throat; after that one word, she stood speechless. Her model Mr Everitt, the painter--the great painter, as she called him! It was impossible, impossible! But Bell's amusement was intense, "I don't know that I should have told you yet, if you had not suspected something in that innocent little way of yours. Still, it was almost more than I could keep to myself; and oh, Kitty, imagine the situation when last night I met him at a dinner-party!" But Kitty did not laugh. "Bell," she said gravely, "I can't believe it. I am sure you must be making some extraordinary mistake."