“Let me look at it.”
And Mr. W—— held a sketch beneath the gas-light, which had creases in it, as if it had been folded in a letter. It was drawn on poorer, thinner paper than the rest also.
He saw a bold outline of mountains, ragged, cliffy, and pine-covered, in the background. In front there was a deep, rugged, shadowy ravine, through which a foaming river rushed in fury. On a small, level spot, almost backed up against a huge rock, was a small log cabin, with smoke curling up from the chimney of rough stones, which rose from the ground at one end of the cabin.
In front of the open door of the cabin a young man, bare-headed, was kneeling, his hands clasped, and such a piteous, imploring look on the face that it almost seemed to speak a prayer.
“There is a whole romance in that picture,” exclaimed Mr. W——. “I do not believe Miss Butler meant it should go with the rest to Mr. Legare. I will keep it, at any rate, with this other sketch of myself, till I know her wishes. The rest I will send to Mr. Legare in the morning.”
“Oh, brother, who can this be? Such a nose, such a chin! Why, she is cross-eyed, too, and as thin as a shadow, a very lean shadow at that,” cried Flotie, over a new discovery.
“That is Miss Scrimp, the landlady where Miss Butler boards,” said Mr. W——, laughing as heartily as his sister did. “It is an excellent portrait. I presume she is taken at the moment when she is laying down the law to the poor creatures who are scrimped at her board. It is a pity so much talent should have been so long hidden over a sewing-bench in our bindery.”
“And so much beauty, Edward. You don’t say a word about that now.”
“What is the use, Anna. She is beautiful, but she is poor, and only a book-bindery girl, after all. If she had accepted the offer of adoption into a wealthy lady’s family, as I hoped she would, you could have met her as a lady, and loved her as a woman.”
“As I’m afraid my brother does already,” said Flotie, gravely. “It would never do, Edward, for you to marry one of your own shop-girls, and hope to introduce her to our circle.”