"A few people are coming to tea with me to-morrow. Perhaps you will come then, at five o'clock."
"It will remind me of the dear old times," said Mrs. Rooth.
"Thank you; I'll try and do better to-morrow," Miriam remarked, very sweetly.
"You do better every minute!" Sherringham exclaimed, looking at Madame Carré in emphasis of this declaration.
"She is finding her voice," the actress responded.
"She is finding a friend!" cried Mrs. Rooth.
"And don't forget, when you come to London, my hope that you'll come and see me," Nick Dormer said to the girl. "To try and paint you—that would do me good!"
"She is finding even two," said Madame Carré.
"It's to make up for one I've lost!" And Miriam looked with very good stage-scorn at Gabriel Nash. "It's he that thinks I'm bad."
"You say that to make me drive you home; you know it will," Nash returned.
"We'll all take you home; why not?" Sherringham asked.
Madame Carré looked at the handsome girl, handsomer than ever at this moment, and at the three young men who had taken their hats and stood ready to accompany her. A deeper expression came for an instant into her hard, bright eyes, while she sighed: "Ah, la jeunesse! you'd always have that, my child, if you were the greatest goose on earth!"
