Jane ran out and picked some ivy leaves to place under the vase of flowers in the middle of the table. It made a little green mat. "There; we're all ready when they come, now," she said. Presently they did come. "Oh, what will Mrs. Cowmull say to this!" said Lorenzo, as he pulled out Mrs. Ralston's chair. "She's busy marking passages in _The Seven Lamps of Architecture_ to read aloud to me while I eat, and now I shan't show up at all." "Have you seen her niece lately?" asked Madeleine. "Yes, I saw her this morning. She wants to pose for me, only she stipulated that she should wear clothes. I told her that my models all wore thick wool and only showed a little of their faces. She didn't seem to like that." "But what did you mean? Surely you don't always have them wear thick woolen?" "I just do. If they haven't thick wool on, I won't paint them at all." "What do you mean?" "Why, I paint sheep." The mild little joke met with great favor. "I think you're a very clever young man," Susan said with great sincerity. "To think of me having a good time laughing with a sheep painter," she added. "Who holds them for you to paint, and do you set them afterwards?" "I paint them right in the fields," said Lorenzo. "I should think they'd butt you from behind." "I paint over a fence." "Well, that's safe," said Jane's aunt. "If you're careful not to be on the side where there's a bull." After supper Madeleine helped Jane wash the dishes. "What fun you make out of everything," she said. "It's the only way," Jane answered. "My mission is to make two sunbeams shine where only one slanted." "I'm glad I'm one of the heathen to whom you were sent," said Madeleine affectionately. Jane put her arm around her. "So am I, dear, very glad." Madeleine laid her face against the other girl's. "Some day I want to tell you a secret," she said; "a secret that Lorenzo told me yesterday." Jane felt her heart sort of skip a beat. "Do tell me," she said in a whisper. "I can't now," said Madeleine. "I want to be all alone with you. It's too--too big a secret to bear to be broken in upon." "Can you come to-morrow afternoon? Auntie's going to Mrs. Mead's to the Sewing Society, and I'll be here alone." "That will be nice," said Madeleine; "yes, I'll come." CHAPTER VIII SOUL-UPLIFTING IT was the next morning about eleven o'clock. "You see," said Jane, sitting in the Crofts' sitting-room opposite Katie Croft who, whatever else she might or might not be, was certainly not pleasant of expression, "you see, my aunt has been an invalid so much that she appreciates what a change means to both the sick one and the one who cares for her, and so we thought that it would be so nice if you'd let me wheel your mother--"