Alpha Book

If he had
been a hundredth part as cynical as he liked to fancy himself, he would
have acted very differently. But he was young enough to have been
wounded by his former dismissal, though he hardly knew it, and to seek
almost instinctively to revenge his wrongs. He did not find it easy. He
would not have believed that such a woman as Maria Consuelo could so far
forget her pride as to go begging for a declaration of love.
"I suppose you will take Gouache's portrait away with you," he observed,
changing the subject with a directness which he fancied would increase
her annoyance.
"What makes you think so?" she asked, rather drily.
"I thought it a natural question."
"I cannot imagine what I should do with it. I shall leave it with him."
"You will let him send it to the Salon in Paris, of course?"
"If he likes. You seem interested in the fate of the picture."
"A little. I wondered why you did not have it here, as it has been
finished so long."
"Instead of that hideous mirror, you mean? There would be less variety.


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