She duly followed this prescription, with the result prophesied. It had been inexpressibly painful to feel that she was being maintained by this hard-working old woman, upon whom she had not the slightest claim, and at the same time to doubt her power of ever making due recompense. Now, with a mind at ease once more as to the future, the open air, the rest, and the ample though simple diet were free to fulfil their good work. In less than a fortnight Mrs. Harbert was able to declare her protégée to be blooming as a rose, and a picture unpainted.
Accordingly she set about finding an engagement for the girl, and one morning, a week or two later, she watched Evarne set off for an advanced and important Art school, armed with good courage, a packet of sandwiches and some sage advice.
"Nobody guesses it's yer first sittin', me dear, and nobody won't take no notice of yer if yer don't tell 'em. Walk out of the dressin'-room as bold as brass, and grumble under yer breath at the pose the master chooses, no matter what it is. If you won't come when 'e calls, or run back agin, or act the fool in any way what ain't usual with models, they'll all remember you're a human bein', and stare at yer, anxious to know what's the matter. Then, likely enough, you would feel rather put out of countenance."
"I'm not going to be silly at all," Evarne had declared with conviction; and sure enough, when she returned in the evening she was able to state that the entire day had gone off satisfactorily.
She had not expected to be much troubled by inopportune bashfulness, and when she found herself again in a studio, beheld the easels and drawing-boards, canvases and palettes, smelt the characteristic odours and heard the familiar artistic jargon of the students, she had felt herself to be an acolyte in a temple wherein was worshipped the perpetuation of the beautiful. The influence of modern thought and custom had fallen from her with her garments, and she had adored her own fairness.
"I'm sorry if it sounds immodest," she confessed, "but indeed I only felt happy to be in the atmosphere of Art once more. I knew that those young men, who all seemed so much in earnest, would learn much from painting me—for it was a very charming pose—and somehow I felt interested in everyone, and as if I wanted them all to get on, and was glad to be able to help them to progress a little. Oh, Mrs. Harbert! Somehow I feel that if only I came across a real artist—a grand man, you know, but young, who hadn't found himself yet, so to speak—I could inspire him to do such wonderful work, to paint pictures he had never dreamed of before. I don't fancy I should ever have been much of an artist myself, even if I'd been able to keep on—perhaps I should though! Anyhow, I know I have got something in my heart or mind, or something vague of that sort, that I could give out to another if he could receive it, and had some of the impulse I'm talking about of his own, and then he would be able to do what otherwise he would never be able to do.... I am getting dreadfully incoherent, but I know what I mean myself. Did you ever feel anything like what I've been describing?"
The old woman would not commit herself to a direct answer.
"It's a blessing yer looks at it in that light," she commented.
But nothing could possibly have surpassed Mrs. Harbert's real opinion of the importance of the part played by the model in the production of any picture of worth, so she was fully sympathetic, no matter to what heights the girl might soar on the topic.
And now Evarne found that she had indeed alighted upon a profession in which she had little to fear for competition, neither did she require much more aid from Mrs. Harbert. Before her fortnight at the Art school was completed, she had already obtained another engagement.