‘Run away?’

’Literally.  Left the children behind in a lodging-house garret to starve, or go to the workhouse, or anything else.  A spirited man; independent, you see; no foolish prejudices.’

‘And Mrs. Abbott has to support them?’

‘No one else could take them.  They live with her.’

‘You didn’t mention that to Mamma.’

‘No.  I thought it needless.’

The silence that followed was embarrassing to Harvey.  He broke it by abruptly changing the subject.

‘Have you practised long today?’

‘No,’ was the absent reply.

’I thought you looked rather tired, as if you had been working too hard.’

‘Oh, I don’t work too hard,’ said Alma impatiently.

‘Forgive me.  I remember that it is a forbidden subject.’

’Not at all.  You may ask me anything you like about myself.  I’m not working particularly hard just now; thinking a good deal, though.  Suppose you let me have your thoughts on the same subject.  No harm.  But I dare say I know them, without your telling me.’

‘I hardly think you do,’ said Rolfe, regarding her steadily.  ’At all events’ —­ his voice faltered a little —­ ‘I’m afraid you don’t.’

‘Afraid?  Oh’ —­ she laughed —­ ’don’t be afraid.  I have plenty of courage, and quite enough obstinacy.  It rather does me good when people show they have no faith in me.’

‘You didn’t understand,’ murmured Harvey.

‘Then make me understand,’ she exclaimed nervously, moving in the chair as if about to stand up, but remaining seated and bent forward, her eyes fixed upon him in a sort of good-humoured challenge.  ’I believe I know what you mean, all the time.  You didn’t discuss me with Mamma, as I suspected, but you think about me just as she does. —­ No, let me go on, then you shall confess I was right.  You have no faith in my powers, to begin with.  It seems to you very unlikely that an everyday sort of girl, whom you have met in society and know all about, should develop into a great artist.  No faith —­ that’s the first thing.  Then you are so kind as to have fears for me —­ yes, it was your own word.  You think that you know the world, whilst I am ignorant of it, and that it’s a sort of duty to offer warnings.’

Harvey’s all but angry expression, as he listened and fidgeted, suddenly stopped her.

‘Well!  Can you deny that these things are in your mind?’

‘They are not in my mind at this moment, that’s quite certain,’ said Harvey bluntly.

‘Then, what is?’

’Something it isn’t easy to say, when you insist on quarrelling with me.  Why do you use this tone?  Do I strike you as a pedagogue, a preacher —­ something of that sort?’

His energy in part subdued her.  She smiled uneasily.

‘No.  I don’t see you in that light.’

’So much the better.  I wanted to appear to you simply a man, and one who has —­ perhaps —­ the misfortune to see in you only a very beautiful and a very desirable woman.’