Jean did not know whether to be vexed or amused with this young man, but she was not going to be disheartened in her choice of a profession.
"I think you had better show him your last production, dear."
"No," said Jean; "that I will not do. I am, in fact, packing it up to go to the framers. Mrs. Gordon wrote asking to have it back when I found out it was too late for the Academy this year. But I am going to try again for next year. Mrs. Gordon is quite willing."
"I will bring Rawlings up to see it when it is hung there," said Charlie Oxton.
He stayed a good while, and when shaking hands with Jean said—
"We are good friends, are we not?"
"I don't make friends quite so fast," said Jean. "We are acquaintances at present."
"How many visits will make me into a friend?"
She would not answer, though the quizzical look in his eyes brought an answering gleam in hers.
A week afterwards she received some snipe in a tin box with the inscription inside—