"
"You were sketching, I see, when I interrupted you. I remember you told me
that night of your fondness for art. May I see what you were doing?"
"It is hardly worth showing you. I was only amusing myself, sketching at
random--that ivy straggling along there, or anything that caught my eye."
"But that sort of thing indicates so much. I see you have a masterly touch
for so young an artist. I won't say anything hackneyed about so fair a one;
for women are showing us nowadays that there are no regions of art closed
against them. Well, it is a divine amusement, and a glorious profession."
There was a little pause after this, during which Clarissa looked at her
watch, and finding it nearly five o'clock, began to put up her pencils and
drawing-book.
"I did not think that you knew Lady Laura Armstrong," she said; and then
blushed for the speech, remembering that, as she knew absolutely nothing
about himself or his belongings, the circumstance of her ignorance on this
one point was by no means surprising.
"No; nor did I expect to meet you here," replied the gentleman. "And yet I
might almost have done so, knowing that you lived at Arden. But, you see,
it is so long since we met, and I----"
"Had naturally forgotten me."
"No, I had not forgotten you, Miss Lovel, nor would it have been natural
for me to forget you. I am very glad to meet you again under such agreeable
auspices.
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