The novelist could not conceal his pleasure at the answer. Presently, he said, "If it is not to be shown as a portrait, may I suggest a title?"
"I was hoping you would!" exclaimed the painter.
"And so was I," cried Sibyl, with delight. "What is it, Mr. Lagrange?"
"Let it be exhibited as 'The Spirit of Nature--A Portrait'," answered Conrad Lagrange.
As the novelist finished speaking, Yee Kee appeared in the doorway. "They come--big automobile. Whole lot people. Misse Taine, Miste' Lutlidge, sick man, whole lot--I come tell you."
The artist spoke quickly,--"Stop them in the house, Kee; I'll be right in,"--and the Chinaman vanished.
At Yee Kee's announcement, Myra Willard's face went white, and she gave a low cry.
"Never mind, dear," said the girl, soothingly. "We can slip away through the garden--come."
When Sibyl and the woman with the disfigured face were gone, Conrad Lagrange and Aaron King looked at each other, questioningly.
Then the novelist said harshly,--pointing to the picture on the easel,--"You're not going to let that flock of buzzards feed on this, are you? I'll murder some one, sure as hell, if you do."