“Why, Corinne?” inquired the artist, beginning to pack up his paints and brushes.
“Oh, because she is so—so—snippy and hateful. She makes fun of my hair whenever she can, and tries to make everyone think I am a sight.” She did not know why she was disposed to be so confidential with this perfect stranger, but somehow he invited confidence.
“Then no doubt she is consumed with jealousy,” her new friend remarked. “I will venture to say that she has dull, mouse-colored hair herself, dry, wispy hair that hangs down in little strings around her face and never looks tidy. I will bet you that I can make a portrait of her without seeing her.” He picked up the canvas on which he had drawn the pussywillows, dusted off the charcoal and began sketching rapidly. “There,” he said, when he had worked for a very few minutes, “doesn’t that look just like her?” He showed Elizabeth the drawing he had made. It was a face with a most disagreeable and contemptuous expression. Little strings of hair fell over the forehead and the eyebrows were lifted in disdain.
Elizabeth did not like to say that it was not an exact likeness, but she laughed at the funny drawing and said, “She has just that supercillious expression.”
The young man put down the canvas and looked at Elizabeth gravely. “Those attacks are entirely too frequent for a young person of your size,” he said. “Where do you go to school?”
“I go to the village school, but next year I expect to go to the Academy.”
“Will you tell your teacher for me that you have the most remarkable vocabulary and that you are a credit to her system. I suppose you live near here, Elfie?”
“Yes, I live in the brown house just at the edge of the town.”
“I don’t know the place very well. I came over today from Ferny with one Hiram Sollers. He said it was ‘pretty sightly to Brookdale.’” The imitation of the old farmer’s dialect was perfect and Elizabeth laughed.
“I have come to the conclusion that Hiram was right,” continued the artist. “I believe I would like to knock about here for awhile. I should like mightily to paint you, Elfie.”