wess and
the American.

They were now standing together before the pictures, and had been joined
by Ashley Greaves, who was beginning to look very warm and expressive,
despite his cavalry moustache. Their backs were towards the room, and
Lady Holme and Robin drew near to them without being perceived. Mrs.
Wolfstein had a loud voice and did not control it in a crowd. On the
contrary, she generally raised it, as if she wished to be heard by those
whom she was not addressing.

"Sargent invariably brings out the secret of his sitters," she was
saying to Ashley Greaves as Lady Holme and Robin came near and stood
for an instant wedged in by people, unable to move forward or backward.
"You've brought out the similarities between Pimpernel and Lady Holme.
I never saw anything so clever. You show us not only what we all saw but
what we all passed over though it was there to see. There is an absurd
likeness, and you've blazoned it."

Robin stole a glance at his companion. Ashley Greaves said, in a thin
voice that did not accord with his physique:

"My idea was to indicate the strong link there is between the English
woman and the American woman. If I may say so, these two portraits, as
it were, personify the two countries, and--er--and--er--"

His mind appeared to give way. He strove to continue, to say something
memorable, conscious of his conspicuous and central position. But his
intellect, possibly over-heated and suffering from lack of air, declined
to back him up, and left him murmuring rather hopelessly:

"The one nation--er--and the other--yes--the give and take--the give and
take. You see my meaning? Yes, yes."

Miss Schley said nothing. She looked at Lady Holme's portrait and
at hers with serenity, and seemed quite unconscious of the many eyes
fastened upon her.

"You feel the strong link, I hope, Pimpernel?" said Mrs. Wolfstein, with
her most violent foreign accent. "Hands across the Herring Pond!"

"Mr. Greaves has been too cute for words," she replied. "I wish Lady
Holme could cast her eye on them."

She looked up at nothing, with a sudden air of seeing something
interesting that was happening along way off.

"Philadelphia!" murmured Mrs. Wolfstein, with an undercurrent of
laughter.

It was very like Lady Holme's look when she was singing. Robin Pierce
saw it and pressed his lips together. At this moment the crowd shifted
and left a gap through which Lady Holme immediately glided towards
Ashley Greaves