Satisfied, after wriggling into a dozen different positions, she went down stairs to see if things were cleared up at the table, and to take another cup of tea in the kitchen, for she was a great tea-drinker.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CRITICISING THE SKETCHES.
Mr. W—— went directly home after his interview with Hattie Butler, and in the presence of his sisters, Flotie and Anna, he opened the portfolio, and together they examined the sketches—not less than thirty or forty in number. They were on all kinds of subjects—some landscapes and others figures. Some few caricatures were exquisitely done—one was the figure of a fashionable belle, looking through an eye-glass at a poor ragged girl sweeping a street crossing.
The two girls laughed over this till they cried—the upturned nose of the belle fairly speaking her scorn for the poor little sister of sorrow who was trying to make the crossing passable for the lady’s dainty feet.
“Why, Brother Edward, here you are!” cried Flotie, as she took up a new sketch; “and you seem to be scolding Mr. Jones, for it is his very picture, standing as I saw him once, with a paste-pot in one hand and a brush in the other.”
Mr. W—— looked at the sketch, and laughed as heartily as his sisters had done.
“I remember that very scene,” he said. “I came in one noon-time, when most of the hands were out, and the rest at their noon lunches, and asked him about some bank work—check-books, which were to have been delivered that morning. He had mislaid the order, the work was not done, and I was very angry. I wonder if I did look as cross as she has made out in the sketch? Mr. Legare will never see that sketch. I wouldn’t take a hundred dollars in cash for it and give it up.”
“How she has hit you. It is charming; even to the twist on the right mustache, which you always finger when you are out of sorts,” said Anna.
“Yes, it is a perfect picture. I don’t believe Nast could make my face out more correctly. What are you looking at so intently, Flotie?”
“A sketch by a bolder hand, far different, and marked ‘My Home.’ Heaven save me from ever living in such a home.”