Please speak to him." The Cavaliere gave a little chuckle.

"Already ?" he cried.
Rowland looked round, equally surprised at the promptitude of the proposal.

Roderick stood planted before the young girl with his arms folded, looking at her as he would have done at the Medicean Venus.

He never paid compliments, and Rowland, though he had not heard him speak, could imagine the startling distinctness with which he made his request.
"He saw me a year ago," the young girl went on, "and he has been thinking of me ever since." Her tone, in speaking, was peculiar; it had a kind of studied inexpressiveness, which was yet not the vulgar device of a drawl.
"I must make your daughter's bust--that 's all, madame!" cried Roderick, with warmth.
"I had rather you made the poodle's," said the young girl.

"Is it very tiresome?
I have spent half my life sitting for my photograph, in every conceivable attitude and with every conceivable coiffure.