“Perhaps, but some people do a lot more rough-hewing than others, and I’m going to hew my way to a position as the greatest American portrait painter, and it won’t be so rough either.”

Before such blind self-confidence Ruth was dumb. She also intended to be a great something or other in the world of art, but she had never thought definitely enough about it to decide just what it would be. She did think now, or spoke without thinking.

“Then I’ll be the greatest landscape painter—landscapes with figures.”

Before they parted at Twentieth Street, Ruth had promised to go to an exhibition with Dorothy on the following Saturday.

Gloria had given her a latch key and she went into the house on Gramercy Square without ringing the bell. She expected to hear her aunt’s voice, but instead a man’s voice called out:

“That you, Gloria?”

33She answered by walking into the drawing-room, disappointed at not finding Gloria there.

33

“Where is Gloria?”

They both said it at once, and then they both laughed. Terry Riordan was very appealing when he laughed. He had risen at her entrance, and was standing loose-limbed yet somehow graceful in his formless tweeds.

“I’ve been waiting at least an hour for her, though it was obvious that George didn’t want me here. He quite overpowered me with big words and proper English to explain why he thought my waiting quite uncalled for.”

“He’s like that, but Gloria is sure to come if you wait long enough,” said Ruth, sinking wearily into a chair and dropping her sketches beside her on the floor.

“Even if she doesn’t I couldn’t find a more comfortable place than this to loaf. I’m too nervous to be any place else in comfort. The show opens tonight. It was all right at the tryout in Stamford, but that doesn’t mean much. I want a cigarette, and George frightened me so that I didn’t dare ask him where they are.”

“Frightened? You, Mr. Riordan?”

“There, you looked like Gloria then. You are relatives, of course, same name and everything, but I never noticed any resemblance before. Suppose you must be 

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