Page:The Van Roon (IA thevanroon00snaiiala).pdf/231

 Keller, holding the picture in both hands, gave her a side look, which he tried, as far as he could, to conceal. In the midst of this scrutiny, he said: "To you, I expect, one picture is very much the same as another?"

"I know what I like," June was able to answer, perhaps for no better reason than that by now she understood only too well that it hardly mattered what she answered.

"Well, anyhow, that's something," said Keller, with a forced laugh. "Great thing to know your mind in these little matters. Nice of your best boy—was your best boy, wasn't it?—to give you this. Not that it's worth much to the ordinary buyer. Pictures are like lovers, you know. Their beauty, sometimes, is in the eye of the beholder."

It sickened her to hear him lie in this way. The deadly sensation of falling, falling, falling came over her again. But she let him run on. For one thing she lacked the power to check him; and even had the power been hers it would have been worse than futile to try to do so.