"But we haven't got to the Marble Arch!"

"What's that got to do with it? I'm off."

He seemed to be going, then stopped, and directed the two pin-points of
light at Miss Van Tuyn.

"I flatly refuse to make an Academy portrait of you, so don't hope for
it," he said. "But if you come along to the studio to-morrow afternoon
you may possibly find me at work on a blackmailer."

"Dick!" said Miss Van Tuyn, in a voice which startled Braybrooke.

"I don't promise," said the painter. "I don't believe in promises,
unless you break 'em. But it's just on the cards."

"You are painting a blackmailer!" said Braybrooke, with an air of
earnest interest. "How very original!"

"Original! Why is it original to paint a blackmailer?"

"Oh--well, one doesn't often run across them. They--they seem to keep so
much to themselves."

"I don't agree with you. If they did some people would be a good deal
better off than they are now."

"Ah, to be sure! That's very true. I had never looked at it in that
light."