David pressed his hand on the latch of the gate and it opened for him. I have always liked to think since that he was the one that really opened the way there.
"Let's go in," he said in a half challenging whisper, but with eyes pleading authority from me.
I couldn't resist. "Well, all right—it will be like Corot wandering around in the forest of Fontainbleau—and if anybody comes——" I didn't know what I would do, so I took my pallet in my hand fancying to myself it would do very well for a shield against any contingent. So we slowly walked up the winding path together.
"The pollywogs are over there," said David, pointing a slender finger toward the house.
"You never mind them," I answered, "what we are here for is to get the setting of this picture. My! Almost any view would do—I never saw so many colors in all my life. Look, David, at that bust over there with the gray-green leaves brushing up against the gray stone—oh, there ought to be a peacock under there, to give a strong iridescent blue note—do you suppose there is a peacock around any place?" I said, laying down my pallet and circling my eyes with my hands so as to localize the color masses better.
But David was sorting pebbles on the walk and so I expected no answer from him, but was scarcely prepared for the one I did receive.
"No, there is no peacock here, but—can I do anything for you?"
I swept around and there was that radiant figure in pink, melting into the green behind her, the soft roundness of her figure echoed in the larger circling outlines of the trees, her brown hair the delicate counterpart in color of the ground she stood on, and her eyes, deep ultramarine, the concentrated blue of all the pale sky—what a picture, what a picture! My imagination flew to grasp it, and I forgot everything but that I must have it, swept up clean from the pallet and made living on the canvas.
"Yes," I said, "yes—there is something you can do for me. You can stay right there—or you can go over there and sit down, while I get you," and I dashed back to the gate after my paints.