r
cousin.

"To spend an hour with an old French actress? Do _you_ want to go upon
the stage?" the young man asked.

"No, but I want to see something--to know something."

"Madame Carre's wonderful in her way, but she's hardly company for a
little English girl."

"I'm not little, I'm only too big; and _she_ goes, the person you speak
of."

"For a professional purpose and with her good mother," smiled Mr. Nash.
"I think Lady Agnes would hardly venture----!"

"Oh I've seen her good mother!" said Biddy as if she had her impression
of what the worth of that protection might be.

"Yes, but you haven't heard her. It's then that you measure her."

Biddy was wistful still. "Is it the famous Honorine Carre, the great
celebrity?"

"Honorine in person: the incomparable, the perfect!" said Peter
Sherringham. "The first artist of our time, taking her altogether. She
and I are old pals; she has been so good as to come and 'say'
things--which she does sometimes still _dans le monde_ as no one else
_can_--- in my rooms."

"Make her come then. We can go _there_!"

"One of these days!"

"And the young lady--Miriam, Maud, Gladys--make her come too."

Sherringham looked at Nash and the latter was bland. "Oh you'll have no
difficulty. She'll jump at it!"

"Very good. I'll give a little artistic tea--with Julia too of course.
And you must come, Mr. Nash." This gentleman promised with an
inclination, and Peter continued: "But if, as you say, you're not for
helping the young lady, how came you to arrange this interview with the
great model?"

"Precisely to stop her short. The great model will find her very bad.
Her judgements, as you probably know, are Rhadamanthine."

"Unfortunate creature!" said Biddy. "I think you're cruel."

"Never mind--I'll look after them," Sherringham laughed.

"And how can Madame Carre judge if the girl recites English?"

"She's so intelligent that she could judge if she recited Chinese,"
Peter declared.

"That's true, but the _jeune Anglaise_ recites also in French," said
Gabriel Nash.

"Then she isn't stupid."

"And in Italian, and in several more tongues, for aught I know."

Sherringham was visibly interested. "Very good--we'll put her through
them all."

"She must be _most_ clever," Biddy went on yearningly.

"She has spent her life on the Continent; she has wandered about with
her mother; she has picked up things."

"And is she a lady?" Biddy asked.

"Oh tremendous! The great