Page:The Tragic Muse (London & New York, Macmillan & Co., 1890), Volume 2.djvu/133

Rh it marked really (if it be a question of noting the exact point) a turn of the tide in Nick Dormer's personal situation. He was destined to remember the accent with which Nash exclaimed, on his drawing forth sundry specimens of amateurish earnestness: "I say—I say—I say!"

Nick glanced round with a heightened colour. "They're pretty bad, eh?"

"Oh, you're a deep one!" Nash went on.

"What's the matter?"

"Do you call your conduct that of a man of honour?"

"Scarcely, perhaps. But when no one has seen them!"

"That's your villainy. C'est de l'exquis, du pur exquis. Come, my dear fellow, this is very serious—it's a bad business," said Gabriel Nash. Then he added, almost with, austerity: "You'll be so good as to place before me every patch of paint, every sketch and scrap that this room contains."

Nick complied, in great good-humour. He turned out his boxes and drawers, shovelled forth the contents of bulging portfolios, mounted on chairs to unhook old canvases that had been severely "skied." He was modest and docile and patient and amused, and above all quite thrilled—thrilled with the idea of eliciting a note of appreciation so late in the day. It was the oddest thing how at present in fact he found himself attributing value to Gabriel Nash—attributing to him, among attributions more confused, the dignity of judgment, the authority of intelligence. Nash was an ambiguous being, but he was an excellent touchstone. The two said very little for a while, and they had almost half an hour's silence, during which, after Nick had hastily improvised a little exhibition,