Jean was silent. Then she said suddenly—
"What is to become of me? What am I to do with my life?"
This egotistical question was not answered, for, visitors were announced, and they proved to be Colonel Douglas and his sister, Mrs. Talbot. Jean for an instant looked as if she meditated flight, then she thought better of it. She had seen the Colonel several times, and though she had not told him as much as she told Miss Lorraine, he knew pretty well what had caused her sudden return. He had had several long discussions with Miss Lorraine, and had now come with a formulated plan in his head for Jean's welfare.
The conversation was general for a time, then Mrs. Talbot said suddenly—
"Frances, I am come to ask a favour. I want Jean to take pity on me. I have promised a great friend of mine to send some one down to paint a picture of her little girl, and I can find no one to do it. Everybody seems too busy. It must be a lady, as she wants her to stay in the house, and it is her fastidiousness on this point that makes my task so difficult. Would Jean undertake it? My brother thought it possible she might."
Miss Lorraine looked across at Jean with a little smile.
"Well, Jean, speak for yourself."
"I have given up painting," Jean said shortly.
"But I heard from some one who knows you that you are so good at children's faces," said Mrs. Talbot persuasively. "And this child is a true artist's subject. She is a lovely little thing, I believe, but chained to her couch. It is her mother's greatest grief, for she is a hopeless cripple."
"I am not good enough at portrait painting to go," said Jean, but she seemed to be wavering.