The next day she did not go out at all, but sat at home working busily, and endeavouring her hardest not to think with regret of last night's now irrevocable decision. What a pity it was that instead of Mr St. John it had not been some lanky school girl with short dresses and a pigtail; it would have been so nice to have someone to talk to occasionally. At present her conversation was restricted to the man who bought her pictures, and the hard-worked, lodging-house slavey on the not too numerous occasions when she brought up the coals. The following afternoon she went out as usual to try and get a few fresh orders, and if possible sell some of her present work. Neither attempt however proved successful, and she arrived home tired and worried with a distinct disinclination to climb the stairs. The ascent had to be made nevertheless, and so she trudged wearily up, and pushed open the studio door with a long drawn sigh of sheer fatigue. That night she crept into bed supperless because she did not feel hungry, and as a natural sequence cried herself to sleep. CHAPTER TWO. The following morning Jill received another visit. It was a case of history repeating itself so to speak. She was seated in much the same attitude as on the former occasion, only this time she waited and allowed the visitor to stumble up the stairs as best he could and knock before she rose to open the door. It was the same quick blundering step, and, when she confronted him, the same slightly scowling face that met her glance; apparently Mr St. John did not find the stairs less intricate on further acquaintance. He held his hat in his hand and Jill noticed that he looked rather diffident. "You got my note?" she queried with a clearly perceptible inflection of surprise in her voice. "Yes," he answered, "that is why I am here. I must apologise, though, for calling on your class day. As a matter of fact I came yesterday afternoon but found I had just missed you; you were out." "Yes," she replied, "I was out, but I never heard that you had been. It was courageous of you to attempt those stairs a second time. Will you come in?" He entered, and then looked round in surprise. The room was just the same as on the former occasion unoccupied save by themselves and with no visible preparation for anyone else. Jill detected the look and resented it. "You are wondering where my pupils are," she said quickly, "I am expecting--no," with a proud upraising of her small chin, "I am _not_ expecting--How could I expect anyone to mount those stairs?--I am _hoping_ that some may turn up eventually." "And yet," he said in a distinctly offended tone, "you refuse the first who presents himself. But perhaps you mistrusted my claim to respectability?" Jill blushed uncomfortably. She had forgotten for the moment that she had refused him as a pupil on the ground of having no vacancy.