"We'll walk about very softly, and may we go into the little room where the lovely children are, Mr. Kirtland?" Rose asked.
"Oh, surely," he answered quickly, "you may like the child studies best."
He meant what he said, and he also thought that if they were pleased with the pictures in the little room that led from the main studio, it would be quite as well.
True, a large screen kept both artist and sitter apart from the rest of the studio, but Arthur Kirtland liked to be wholly alone, and undisturbed while painting a portrait, and he was very glad when the children tired of the pictures in the large studio, and went out into the small room.
"He didn't look like what you guessed, did he?" said Rose, when together they seated themselves in the little room.
"No, not a bit, and the reason you could guess what he was like was because you'd seen him," said Polly, "and when he made the funny little bow just as you did, I almost laughed."
"I don't wonder he struts when he walks. Just think who he's painted! Two dukes, one is that man with the red hair, and the eyes that laugh at you. It's out in the big room," said Rose, "don't you remember it?"
"Yes, but I like the big lady in velvet, and lace, that hangs next to him," said Polly.
"That's his wife, Mr. Kirtland said so," said Rose.
"Oh, would you think a lovely lady like that would marry a man with red hair?" said Polly.