iera, you know. She knew me directly I introduced myself. That's one
thing about Art, it _does_ bring you into the very _best_ society. No, I
can't say I cared much about his pictures this year--portraits are so
very uninteresting, you know--they tell you nothing, unless you happen
to know the people, and _then_ you never recognise them. I thought all
his were dreadful. Oh, I know I said I should expect to see them all
hung on the line--but what of _that_? One can't be perfectly candid in
the world, my dear, much as one would wish to be. _What_ is that you're
saying? "On the Hanging Committee this year?" How can you possibly
_know_? "You heard him say so?" Then you ought to have stopped me,
instead of standing there like a shy school-girl. Not that he would
think I meant anything by a remark like that--why _should_ he? I'm sure
I _tried_ to say everything that was pleasant!

I hope I am the _last_ person to practise insincerity, my dear,--it's a
thing I have the greatest _horror_ of. Only one doesn't like to hurt
people's _feelings_, don't you see? One can only just _hint_ that a
picture isn't quite--especially when one doesn't pretend to know much
about it. Not that I am incapable of speaking out when I feel it my
duty. If one sees where a little improvement would make all the
difference, one _ought_ to mention it. And Artists are so grateful for
suggestions of that kind--they like to know how it strikes a perfectly
fresh eye. I remember telling the President last year that one of his
figures was just a _leetle_ bit out of drawing, and that the folds of
his drapery didn't hang right, and he bowed most beautifully and thanked
me--but when I came to see the picture exhibited, I found he hadn't
altered it a bit! So it really is hardly worth while speaking
plainly--painters are so very opinionated.

What a long way it is to Mr. FITZJOHN'S to be sure, and the afternoon
turning quite chilly--don't take _all_ the rug, my dear, _please_!

Oh, don't apologise, Mr. FITZJOHN--quite light enough for _me_, I assure
you. Thank you, I will sit down, we've been seeing pictures--good, bad,
_and_ indifferent--all the afternoon, so _fatiguing_, you know, so many
ideas to grasp. I don't mean that that's the case with _your_ pictures
... Yes, very nice, charming. Let me see, didn't you exhibit the large
one _last_ year? No? Ah! then it's my mistake, I seem to have seen it so
often before--a favourite subject with Artists, I suppose. So di