'But haven't touched the effect. I've been painting in some figures— two peasant women picking sticks, come and look.'
XVI.
Three days after Morton finished his picture. Mildred had been with him most of the time. And now lunch was over, and they lay on the rug under the oak tree talking eagerly.
'Corot never married,' Morton remarked, as he shaded his eyes with his hand, and asked himself if any paint appeared in his sky. There was a corner on the left that troubled him. 'He doesn't seem to have ever cared for any woman. They say he never had a mistress.'
'I hear that you have not followed his example.'
'Not more than I could help.'
His childish candour amused her so that she laughed outright, and she watched the stolid childish stare that she liked, until a longing to take him in her arms and kiss him came upon her. Her voice softened, and she asked him if he had ever been in love?
'Yes, I think I was.'
'How long did it last?'
'About five years.'