fty miles long.
I like your description of Perugia. Every town should be walled round,
now we trail into endless suburbs."

"But the Green Park is beautiful, and these evening distances!"

"Never mind the Green Park; come and have a cup of tea. Asher has
bought a new picture. I'd like to show it to you. But," said Harding,
"I forgot to tell you that I met your model."

"Lucy Delaney? Where?"

"Here, I met her here," said Harding, and he took Rodney's arm so that
he might be able to talk to him more easily. "One evening, a week ago,
I was loitering, just as I was loitering to-day, and it was at the very
door of St. James's Hotel that she spoke to me."

"How did she get to London? and I didn't know that you knew her."

"A girl came up suddenly and asked me the way to the Gaiety Theatre,
and I told her, adding, however, that the Gaiety Theatre was closed.
'What shall I do?' I heard her say, and she walked on; I hesitated and
then walked after her. 'I beg your pardon,' I said, 'the Gaiety Theatre
is closed, but there are other theatres equally good. Shall I direct
you?' 'Oh, I don't know what I shall do. I have run away from home....
I have set fire to my school and have come over to London thinking that
I might go on the stage.' She had set fire to her school! I never saw
more winning eyes. But she's a girl men would look after, and not
liking to stand talking to her in Piccadilly, I asked her to come down
Berkeley Street. I was very curious to know who was this girl who had
set fire to her school and had come over to London to go on the stage;
and we walked on, she telling me that she had set fire to her school so
that she might be able to get away in the confusion. I hoped I should
not meet anyone I knew, and let her prattle on until we got to the
Square. The Square shone like a ball-room with a great plume of green
branches in the middle and every corner a niche of gaudy window boxes.
Past us came the season's stream of carriages, the women resting
against the cushions looking like finely cultivated flowers. The beauty
of the Square that afternoon astonished me. I wondered how it struck
Lucy. Very likely she was only thinking of her Gaiety Theatre!"

"But how did you know her name?"

"You remember it was at the corner of Berkeley Square that Evelyn Innes
stood when she went to see Owen Asher for the first time, she used to
tell me how she stood at the curb watching London passing by her,
thinking that one day L