"No, I suppose not. Still, I fancy Mr. Vernon is poor. He has a very plain studio."
"He hopes to get into a better one soon, he tells me."
"He looks as if he had seen better days," said Mrs. Sheldon, reflectively. "I've a great mind to ask him."
"Oh, pray don't, Aunt Caroline!" said Grace, in alarm.
"Why not?"
"He may be sensitive on the subject. It may arouse painful thoughts."
"Possibly; then I won't speak of it."
"I wouldn't, if I were you."
When Grace's portrait was sent home, she took pains to show it to her friends in the hope that she might procure additional work for the young artist. She was successful, and before Mrs. Sheldon's was completed, Mr. Vernon had received three orders from friends of the heiress, one a gentleman, who felt safe in patronizing one whom Miss Dearborn spoke well of.
With considerable diffidence, on the recommendation of Grace, Vernon ventured to charge the same sum—two hundred dollars—and was surprised to find that his new patrons more readily agreed to pay this sum than the very modest price he had formerly asked. They took it for granted that a man who demanded such prices must be an artist of high rank, and agreed to his terms without a word.