“I don’t want to go away and study,” she said.  “It is perfectly dear of you to offer it—­I—­there is no use in trying to thank you—­”

“Valerie!”

“What!” she said, startled by his use of her given name for the first time in their acquaintance.

He said, smilingly grave:  “You didn’t think there was a string attached to anything I offered?”

“A—­a string?”

“Did you?”

She blushed hotly:  “No, of course not.”

“It’s all right then,” he nodded; but she began to think of that new idea in a confused, startled, helpless sort of way.

“How could you think that of me?” she faltered.

“I didn’t—­”

“You—­it must have been in your mind—­”

“I wanted to be sure it wasn’t in yours—­”

“You ought to have known!  Haven’t you learned anything at all about me in two months?”

“Do you think any man can learn anything about anybody in two months?” he asked, lightly.

“Yes, I do.  I’ve learned a good deal about you—­enough, anyway, not to attribute anything—­unworthy—­”

“You silly child; you’ve learned nothing about me if that’s what you think you’ve discovered.”

“I have discovered it!” she retorted, tremulously; “I’ve learned horrid things about other men, too—­and they’re not like you!”

“Valerie!  Valerie!  I’m precisely like all the rest—­my selfishness is a little more concentrated than theirs, that’s the only difference.  For God’s sake don’t make a god of me.”

She sat down on the head of the sofa, looking straight at him, pretty head lowered a trifle so that her gaze was accented by the lovely level of her brows: 

“I’ve long wanted to have a thorough talk with you,” she said.  “Have you got time now?”

He hesitated, controlling his secret amusement under an anxious gravity as he consulted the clock.

“Suppose you give me an hour on those figures up there?  The light will be too poor to work by in another hour.  Then we’ll have tea and ‘thorough talks.’”

“All right,” she said, calmly.

He picked up palette and mahl-stick and mounted to his perch on the scaffolding; she walked slowly into the farther room, stood motionless a moment, then raising both arms she began to unhook the collar of her gown.

When she was ready she stepped into her sandals, threw the white wool robe over her body, and tossed one end across her bare shoulder.

He descended, aided her aloft to her own eyrie, walked across the planking to his own, and resumed palette and brushes in excellent humour with himself, talking gaily while he was working: 

“I’m devoured by curiosity to know what that ‘thorough talk’ of yours is going to be about.  You and I, in our briefly connected careers, have discussed every subject on earth, gravely or flippantly, and what in the world this ‘thorough talk’ is going to resemble is beyond me—­”