"There!" said Sunnie, with shining eyes, "that makes a beautiful verse, and I'll write it down in my rhyme book. Only it's too good for me."
"Well," said the doctor, jumping up, "I must be off. When I next come, Miss Desmond, I shall ask to look at the picture."
"I'm longing for to-morrow," said Sunnie.
"You say that every day," laughed Dr. Fergusson.
The little party broke up. Nurse came back to her charge, and Jean went down to the drawing-room. On her way, she paused in the big square hall, and looked up at the family portraits.
"All beautiful women," she commented. "But if I do her justice, Sunnie will eclipse them all. They seem to want soul, their faces are so wooden. I wonder if I shall be able to paint the wonderful charm in the child's sweet face."
In a very short time, Jean had settled down in her new surroundings. When she was not painting Sunnie, she was out of doors. The keen bracing Scotch air, and bright clear atmosphere exhilarated and stimulated her, after London fog and mud. She loved the pine-woods, and wrapping her thick cloak round her, would spend an hour or so sitting on a fallen tree, and learning from Nature's book.
One day, Mrs. Gordon took her into the library, and seeing the girl's glistening eyes, asked—
"Are you fond of reading?"
"Devoted to it," said Jean breathlessly. "I was debarred from reading after I left school, and I think that is the very time one pants for book knowledge. In London, I felt it wrong to read too much, though Miss Lorraine encouraged me to do it. I wanted to devote all my time to art."