“Then cant, tradition, numbers, slang and money are against us; the least of these is singly a match for truth; we shall die of despair or paint cobwebs in Bedlam; and I am faint, weary of a hopeless struggle; and one man's brush is truer than mine, another's is bolder—my hand and eye are not in tune. Ah! no! I shall never, never, never be a painter.”
These last words broke audibly from him as his head went down almost to his knees.
A hand was placed on his shoulder as a flake of snow falls on the water. It was Christie Johnstone, radiant, who had glided in unobserved.
“What's wrang wi' ye, my lad?”
“The sun is gone to the Devil, for one thing.”
“Hech! hech! ye'll no be long ahint him; div ye no think shame.”
“And I want that little brute just to do so, and he'd die first.”
“Oh, ye villain, to ca' a bairn a brute; there's but ae brute here, an' it's no you, Jamie, nor me—is it, my lamb?”
She then stepped to the window.
“It's clear to windward; in ten minutes ye'll hae plenty sun. Tak your tools noo.” And at the word she knelt on the floor, whipped out a paper of sugar-plums and said to him she had christened “Jamie.” “Heb! Here's sweeties till ye.” Out went Jamie's arms, as if he had been a machine and she had pulled the right string.