“Tea, Peter?” asked Silvia. She had looked up at his entry; now she kept her eyes on her tray.
“Yes, indeed,” said Aunt Eleanor, “I’m sure they look very fine, Joanna. Three already finished! That’s wonderful. I suppose, Mr. Mainwaring, you’ll be soon wanting to borrow the fourth of my sketches?”
“Dear lady, I hesitate. I positively hesitate to ask you,” said he, “for I know how you will hate parting with it even for a week or two. But without it I can never paint the larger version. The inspiration, the first rapture, is there; I must study it again.”
Aunt Eleanor turned triumphantly to Nellie.
“You must positively come to see those sketches, Mrs. Beaumont,” she said. “I have all the original sketches of Mr. Mainwaring’s great cartoons. Such a treat!”
“I’m sure they’re charming,” said Nellie.
“Charming indeed! Masterpieces! Such fire! Such inspiration as never could be realized again.”
“The three great cartoons,” said Aunt Joanna firmly, while the floral decorations trembled, “fill up the whole side of Sir Abe’s last addition to our house. A new wing, I may call it, with bedrooms above.”
“My sweet little sitting-room,” said Aunt Eleanor absently. “All the sketches: the fire....”
“Yes, dear, and as I was telling you, the great cartoons,” said Aunt Joanna. “That was what I was telling you.”