"His bearing towards father was the perfection of good breeding," thought Ida, and it would seem that some of the gratitude with which her heart overflowed found its way into her tones and eyes. "You look so pleasantly and kindly, that you must be thinking of Mr. Eltinge," said Van Berg. "You are not to paint my thoughts," said Ida, with a quick flush. "I wish I could." "I'm glad you can't." "You do puzzle one, Miss Mayhew. On the day of our visit to the old garden your thoughts seemed as clear to me as the water of the little brook, and I supposed I saw all that was in your mind. But before the day was over I felt that I did not understand you at all." "Mr. Van Berg, I'm astonished you are an artist." "Because of the character of my work?" "No, indeed. But such a wonderful taste for solving problems suggests a metaphysician. I think you would become discouraged with such tasks. Just think how many ladies there are in the world, and I'm sure any one of them is a more abstruse problem than I am." The artist looked up at her in surprise and bit his lip with a faint trace of embarrassment, but he said, after a moment, "But it does not follow that they are interesting problems." "You don't know," she replied. "And never shall," he added. "I do know, however, that you are a very interesting one." "I didn't agree to come here to be solved as a problem," she said demurely, but with a mirthful twinkle in her eyes; "I only promised you a sitting for the sake of Mr. Eltinge." "Two sittings, Miss Mayhew." "Well, yes, if two are needful." "By all the nine muses! you do not expect me to make a good picture from only two sittings?" "You know how slight is my acquaintance with any of those superior divinities, and in this sacred haunt of theirs I feel that I should express all my opinions with bated breath; but truly, Mr. Van Berg, I thought you could make a picture from the sketch you made in the garden." "Yes, I could make A picture, but every sitting you will give enables me to make a better picture, and you know how much we both owe to Mr. Eltinge." "I'm learning every day how much, how very much, I owe to him," she said, earnestly. "Then for his sake you will promise to come as often as I wish you to," was his eager response, and it was so eager that she looked up at him in surprise. "Really, Mr. Van Berg, I am becoming bewildered as to what that little sketch I asked you to make may involve." "Will it be so wearisome for you to come here?" he asked, with a look of disappointment that surprised her still more. "I didn't say that," was her quick reply; "and I promise to come to-morrow. Perhaps you will find that sufficient." "I know it won't be sufficient." "Cousin Ik has told me that you are very painstaking and conscientious in your work." "Thanks to Cousin Ik. When I get a chance to paint such a picture as this I do, indeed, wish to make the most of it." "But how long must Mr. Eltinge wait for it?"