They didn't want me--and Mrs.Gibson, poor creature, was real glad when I said I was going.

She was jealous of me all the time.' 'I expect you imagined that.' Phoebe's face flushed angrily.
'I didn't!' she said, shortly.

'Everybody in the house knew it.' The meal went on rather silently.

Fenwick's conscience said to him, 'Take her back with you!--whatever happens, take her to London--she's moping her life out here.' And an inner voice clamoured in reply--'Take her to those rooms ?--in the very middle of the struggle with those two pictures ?--go through all the agitation and discomfort of explanations with Lord Findon and Madame de Pastourelles ?--run the risk of estranging them, and of distracting your own mind from your work at this critical moment ?--the further risk, moreover, of Phoebe's jealousy ?' For in her present nervous and fidgety state she would very likely be jealous of his sitter, and of the way in which Madame de Pastourelles' portrait possessed his mind.

No, it really couldn't be done!--it really _couldn't!_ He must finish the two pictures--persuade Lord Findon to buy the 'Genius Loci,' and make the portrait such a success that he must needs buy that too.