“You may as well finish both; they are too good to be lost.”
The artist bowed, and Guy, with a half guilty blush, hurried down into
the street, where Agues was waiting for him. Two hours later, Guy, in
Mrs. Conner’s parlor, was exhibiting the finished picture, which in its
handsome casing, was more beautiful than ever, and more natural, if
possible.
“I think I might have one of Maddy’s,” Jessie said, half poutingly;
then, as she remembered the second sitting, she begged of Guy to get it
for her, “that was a dear brother.”
But the “dear brother” did not seem inclined to comply with her
request, putting her off, until, despairing of success, Jessie, when
alone with the doctor, tried her powers of persuasion on him, coaxing
until in self-defense he crossed the street, and entering the
daguerrean gallery asked for the remaining picture of Miss Clyde,
saying that he wished it for little Miss Remington.
“Mr. Remington took them both,” the artist replied, commencing a
dissertation on the style and beauty of the young girl, all of which
was lost upon the doctor, who, in a kind of maze, quitted the room, and
returning to Jessie, said to her carelessly: “He hasn’t it. You know
they rub out those they do not use. So you’ll have to do without; and,
Jessie, I wouldn’t tell Guy I tried to get it for you.”
Jessie wondered why she must not tell Guy, but the fact that the doctor
requested her not was sufficient. Consequently Guy little guessed that
the doctor knew what it was he carried so carefully in his coat pocket,
looking at it earnestly when at home and alone in his own room,
admiring its soft, girlish beauty, half shrinking from the lifelike
expression of the large, bright eyes, and trying to convince himself
that his sole object in getting it was to give it to the doctor after
Maddy was gone! It would be such a surprise, and the doctor would be so
glad, that Guy finally made himself believe that he had done a most
generous thing!
“I am going to send Lucy your picture to-day, and as she asked that you
should write her a few lines, suppose you do it now,” Guy said to Maddy
next morning, as they were leaving the breakfast table.
It was a sore trial to Maddy to write to Lucy Atherstone, but she
offered no remonstrance, and so accompanying the picture was a little
note, filled mostly with praises of Mr. Guy, and which would be very
gratifying to the unsuspecting Lucy.
Now that it was fully decided for Jessie to go with Maddy, her lessons
were suspended, and Aikenside for the time being was turned into a vast
dressmaking and millinery establishment. With his usual generosity, Guy
had given Agnes permission to draw upon his purse for whatever was
needed, either for herself or Jessie, with the definite understanding
that Maddy should have an equal share of dress and attention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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