ROBERT BARR Ultimate Collection: 20 Novels & 65+ Detective Stories. Robert Barr

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СКАЧАТЬ her, you could enjoy your two thousand pounds a year. You, perhaps, might have to appear at some of the receptions she would give, and I have no doubt she would add five guineas an evening for your presence. That would be an extra, you know."

      There was a long silence between them after Maggie Linderham ceased speaking. The young man kicked the gravel with his toes, and his eyes were bent upon the path before him. "He is thinking it over," said Miss Linderham to herself. At last Lord Stansford looked up, with a sigh.

      "Did you see the late scuffle between the unfortunate Heckle and myself?"

      "Did I see it?" she asked. "How could I help seeing it?"

      "Ah, then, did you notice that when he was down I helped him up?"

      "Yes; and threatened to break his wrists when you got him up."

      "Quite so. I should have done it, too, if he had not promised. But what I wanted to call your attention to, was the fact that he was standing up when I struck him, and I want also to impress upon you the other fact, that I did not hit him when he was down. Did you notice that?"

      "Of course, I noticed it. No man would hit another when he was down."

      "I am very glad, Miss Linderham, that you recognise it as a code of honour with us men, brutes as we are. Don't you think a woman should be equally generous?"

      "Certainly; but I don't see what you mean."

      "I mean this, Miss Linderham, that your offer is hitting me when I'm down."

      "Oh!" exclaimed Miss Linderham, in dismay. "I'm sure I beg your pardon;

       I did not look at it in that light."

      "Oh, it doesn't matter very much," said Stansford, rising; "it's all included in the two guineas, but I'm pleased to think I have some self- respect left, and that I can refuse your lady, and will not become a hired husband at two thousand pounds a year. May I see you back to the house, Miss Linderham? As you are well aware, I have duties towards other guests who are not hired, and it is a point of honour with me to earn my money. I wouldn't like a complaint to reach the ears of Spink and Company."

      Miss Linderham rose and placed her hand within his arm.

      "Telephone, what number?" she asked.

      "Telephone 100,803," he answered. "I am sorry the firm did not provide me with some of their cards when I was at the office this afternoon."

      "It doesn't matter," said Miss Linderham; "I will remember," and they entered the house together.

      Next day, at a large studio in Kensington, none of the friends who had met Miss Linderham at the ball the evening before would have recognised the girl; not but what she was as pretty as ever, perhaps a little prettier, with her long white pinafore and her pretty fingers discoloured by the crayons she was using. She was trying to sketch upon the canvas before her the figure of a man, striking out from the shoulder, and she did not seem to have much success with her drawing, perhaps because she had no model, and perhaps because her mind was pre- occupied. She would sit for a long time staring at the canvas, then jump up and put in lines which did not appear to bring the rough sketch any nearer perfection.

      The room was large, with a good north window, and scattered about were the numberless objects that go to the confusing make-up of an artist's workshop. At last Miss Linderham threw down her crayon, went to the end of the room where a telephone hung, and rang the bell.

      "Give me," she said, "100,803."

      After a few moments of waiting, a voice came.

      "Is that Spink and Company?" she asked.

      "Yes, madam," was the reply.

      "You have in your employ Lord Stansford, I think?"

      "Yes, madam."

      "Is he engaged for this afternoon?"

      "No, madam."

      "Well, send him to Miss Linderham, No. 2,044, Cromwell Road, South

       Kensington."

      The man at the other end wrote the address, and then asked—

      "At what hour, madam?"

      "I want him from four till six o'clock."

      "Very well, madam, we shall send him."

      "Now," said Miss Linderham, with a sigh of relief, "I can have a model who will strike the right attitude. It is so difficult to draw from memory."

      The reason why so many women fail as artists, as well as in many other professions, may be because they pay so much attention to their own dress. It is an astonishing fact to record that Miss Linderham sent out for a French hairdresser, who was a most expensive man, and whom she generally called in only when some very important function was about to take place.

      "I want you," she said, "to dress my hair in an artistic way, and yet in a manner that it will seem as if no particular trouble had been taken. Do you understand me?"

      "Ah, perfectly, mademoiselle," said the polite Frenchman. "You shall be so fascinating, mademoiselle, that——"

      "Yes," said Miss Linderham, "that is what I want."

      At three o'clock she had on a dainty gown. The sleeves were turned up, as if she were ready for the most serious work. The spotless pinafore which covered this dress had the most fetching little frill around it; all in all, it was doubtful if any studio in London, even one belonging to the most celebrated painter, had in it as pretty a picture as Miss Maggie Linderham was that afternoon. At three o'clock there came a ring at the telephone, and when Miss Linderham answered the call, the voice which she had heard before said—

      "I am very sorry to disappoint you, madam, but Lord Stansford resigned this afternoon. We could send you another man if you liked to have him."

      "No, no!" cried Miss Linderham; and the man at the other end of the telephone actually thought she was weeping.

      "No, I don't want any one else. It doesn't really matter."

      "The other man," replied the voice, "would be only two guineas, and it was five for Lord Stansford. We could send you a man for a guinea, although we don't recommend him."

      "No," said Miss Linderham, "I don't want anybody. I am glad Lord Stansford is not coming, as the little party I proposed to give, has been postponed."

      "Ah, then, when it does come off, madam, I hope——"

      But Miss Linderham hung up the receiver, and did not listen to the recommendations the man was sending over the wire about his hired guests. The chances are that Maggie Linderham would have cried had it not been that her hair was so nicely, yet carelessly, done; but before she had time to make up her mind what to do, the trim little maid came along the gallery and down the steps into the studio, with a silver salver in her hand, and on it a card, which she handed to Miss Linderham, who picked up the card and read, "Richard Stansford."

      "Oh," she cried joyfully, "ask him to come here."

      "Won't you see him in the drawing-room, miss?"

      "No, СКАЧАТЬ