"It's true enough I get my folly from you," said the elder man, not ill-humouredly. "Oh, no more speeches of that sort! I've the whip-hand of you for a good while," said Jack, triumphantly. "You can't say I ever dressed up as a model to get into a house." "To get into a house!" Everitt frowned. "Certainly that was not my motive." "What then?" demanded the imperturbable Jack. "Merely that that brute came drunk, and I had promised to send some one." "Oh!" "What do you mean by your `oh'? it was, I tell you--hotly. I dare say. But it won't look like it to them when they find it out." "What do you mean?" "Only what I say. You'll be run in, somehow, of course; you're not the sort of fellow to do it under the rose. Well, when it comes out they won't believe but that you had some object in view." "Go on, Jack; you're a marvel of precocious wisdom! I tell you, I'd never seen or heard of them before." "Not Miss Aitcheson?" "Oh, Miss Aitcheson! I'm sure I never want to see Miss Aitcheson again." "Was she there?" "Yes." "And don't you suppose she recognised you?" "Shouldn't wonder." "Well, you have put your foot in it." "What's the harm? I promised a model; he failed, and I went myself." "Oh, no particular harm," said Jack, coolly; "no harm at all, I dare say; only if I had happened to do such a thing--" "You!" repeated Everitt, looking at Jack. Put in this manner, the idea certainly appeared intolerable. "You! Oh, you're different." "I should say I was. I shall never pull up to your heights of audacity, that's certain. What's your next move? Are you going again?" "No," curtly. "To-morrow I shall send Jackson." Jack had a good many more jests to cut, which the other endured with what meekness he could muster. It was annoying that the young fellow should have made the discovery, for it would inevitably serve as a means for plaguing Everitt whenever the artist tried to get Master Jack into steady work. Moreover, the way in which he looked at it made Everitt a little uneasy; it had not before struck him that others might regard it in that attitude, which had, indeed, been far enough from his own point of view. In the afternoon he went to his cousin's in Hans Place. She welcomed him with excessive cordiality and some surprise. "For a wonder I find you alone," he said. "That sounds," she said, "as if you were in the habit of trying to find me. Shall we go into dates, or would you rather throw yourself on my mercy?" "Much rather. Indeed, I am afraid this is going to be an afternoon of confessions." She glanced at him and then at a letter which the servant had given her when Everitt came in. "Will you excuse me," she said, "if I read my letter?" It contained no more than a few lines, but Mrs Marchmont took an unusual time in reading them. When she had finished, she refolded the note and laid it by her side.