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Rh man to joke, or to use innnendoes, with me. To every gentleman, a lady's name is sacred."

This was the thrust most calculated to irritate his antagonist.

"Bah!" he said, with ill-humour, "it isn't necessary to be blind to a gentleman, I suppose?"

"It is necessary to be dumb."

"That is as much as an acknowledgment that there is something to conceal. You are very deep, Baring; you know much more than you choose to say."

"If I did know much more, I should certainly not say it. I do not choose to discuss Miss Shaw and her affairs with any one."

"You are quite right," sneered Melchior. "When you have got hold of a good thing, keep it. Who supplies her with money? You don't inquire. You take the goods the gods send you, and ask no questions. The girl is not a poor artist. She has money—and you know it."

"Your tone. Monsieur Melchior, is offensive," said the painter, sternly. He laid down his palette, and walked deliberately across to where the other was seated. "What do you mean to insinuate?—that Miss Shaw is helping to support me and my sister?"

"In one sense, she certainly is, since it was she who bought your picture from Jacob."

He had not meant to say this—at all events, at present; but the American's tone of superiority, and the impossibility of learning anything from him, had exasperated the Jew past endurance. The effect of his words on Alaric Baring was curious. He turned white; he could not speak for a moment or two.