"
Then he sat down to pour out his heart to Maisie in a four-sheet letter of
counsel and encouragement, and registered an oath that he would get to work
with an undivided heart as soon as Bessie should reappear.
The girl kept her appointment unpainted and unadorned, afraid and overbold by
turns. When she found that she was merely expected to sit still, she grew
calmer, and criticised the appointments of the studio with freedom and some
point. She liked the warmth and the comfort and the release from fear of
physical pain. Dick made two or three studies of her head in monochrome, but
the actual notion of the Melancolia would not arrive.
"What a mess you keep your things in!" said Bessie, some days later, when she
felt herself thoroughly at home. "I s'pose your clothes are just as bad.
Gentlemen never think what buttons and tape are made for."
"I buy things to wear, and wear 'em till they go to pieces. I don"t know what
Torpenhow does."
Bessie made diligent inquiry in the latter's room, and unearthed a bale of
disreputable socks. "Some of these I'll mend now," she said, "and some I'll
take home. D'you know, I sit all day long at home doing nothing, just like a
lady, and no more noticing them other girls in the house than if they was so
many flies.
Pages:
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
1012
1013
1014
1015
1016
1017
1018
1019