me. It was in her view a
part of the conspiracy that to show him a kindness I asked him at last to
sit to me. I dare say moreover she was disgusted to hear that I had
ended by attempting almost as many sketches of his beauty as I had
attempted of hers. What was the value of tributes to beauty by a hand
that could so abase itself? My relation to poor Dawling's want of
modelling was simple enough. I was really digging in that sandy desert
for the buried treasure of his soul.

CHAPTER VI

It befell at this period, just before Christmas, that on my having gone
under pressure of the season into a great shop to buy a toy or two, my
eyes fleeing from superfluity, lighted at a distance on the bright
concretion of Flora Saunt, an exhibitability that held its own even
against the most plausible pinkness of the most developed dolls. A huge
quarter of the place, the biggest bazaar "on earth," was peopled with
these and other effigies and fantasies, as well as with purchasers and
vendors haggard alike, in the blaze of the gas, with hesitations. I was
just about to appeal to Flora to avert that stage of my errand when I saw
that she was accompanied by a gentleman whose identity, though more than
a year had elapsed, came back to me from the Folkestone cliff. It had
been associated on that scene with showy knickerbockers; at present it
overflowed more splendidly into a fur-trimmed overcoat. Lord Iffield's
presence made me waver an instant before crossing over, and during that
instant Flora, blank and undistinguishing, as if she too were after all
weary of alternatives, looked straight across at me. I was on the point
of raising my hat to her when I observed that her face gave no sign. I
was exactly in the line of her vision, but she either didn't see me or
didn't recognise me, or else had a reason to pretend she didn't. Was her
reason that I had displeased her and that she wished to punish me? I had
always thought it one of her merits that she wasn't vindictive. She at
any rate simply looked away; and at this moment one of the shop-girls,
who had apparently gone off in search of it, bustled up to her with a
small mechanical toy. It so happened that I followed closely what then
took place, afterwards recognising that I had been led to do so, led even
through the crowd to press nearer for the purpose, by an impression of
which in the act I was not fully conscious.

Flora with the toy in her hand looked round at h