' I shall speak to Mrs. Belding as soon as she
returns."
"Do, by all means. I should like to go, but mamma would not spend three
nights in a sleeping-car to see the Delectable Mountains themselves."
He rose and walked about the room, looking at the flower and the young
artist from different points of view, and seeing new beauties in each
continually. There were long lapses of conversation, in which Alice
worked assiduously and Farnham lounged about the conservatory, always
returning with a quick word and a keen look at the face of the girl. At
last he said to himself: "Look here! She is not a baby. She is nearly
twenty years old. I have been wondering why her face was so steady and
wise." The thought that she was not a child tilled his heart with
pleasure and his face with light. But his volubility seemed to die
suddenly away. He sat for a good while in silence, and started a little
as she looked up and said:
"Now, if you will be very gentle, you can see my sketch and tell me
what to do next."
It was a pretty and unpretentious picture that she had made. The flower
was faithfully though stiffly given, and nothing especially remarkable
had been attempted or achieved.
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