"Yes, I know him. I am going to try if I can get into your pension myself."
"You? In our pension? Oh! Lord Robert, what on earth will you do there? We are nearly all hard workers there; busy all day long."
"So shall I be. Think I can't work hard? Long wanted to stndy French jurisprudence. Slack time now. Not wanted by my constituency. Just fit in."
"I am afraid yon will not like the people at the pension."
"Shan't I? What does it signify? I shall have you—and—Mr. George—to talk to."
"I must tell yon frankly you will see but little of me. Except for my meals, I am rarely in the public rooms."
"You will relax your rule a little in my favour, I hope. Who are you working with?"
"I have begun with Monsieur D———. His class is only just reopened. Hitherto I have been painting from models in Miss Baring's studio."
"That girl? Much of a performer? Looks very ill."
"She is delicate. A charming person, but she does not paint remarkably well. I must rejoin her. If you do come to our pension, may I ask you to say nothing about me? Nothing. Do you understand?" Then, with a sudden and happy audacity, she added, "I have escaped from Farley to avoid mercenary people, who made up to me because I am an heiress. I don't want the same thing to begin again here. I am supposed to have taken up painting as a profession. Will you remember that? Good-bye."
