Jean looked thoughtful.
"I can't help being in earnest," she said; "but I was nearly put off my art altogether before I came here. I had got a sickening of it in Paris."
"And what were you going to do?"
"Nothing. Life seemed a blank."
"You're very young!"
Meta's tone had pity in it.
"And I think you old," retorted Jean. "Have you got beyond everything?"
Meta shook her head and laughed.
"Come with me to see Mrs. Fergusson," she said; "then I will tell you one of my many purposes. We will go to-morrow, if Aunt Helen approves."
"I don't know Mrs. Gordon any better to-day," said Jean thoughtfully, "than the first day I came."