"Now, Ma'am, I call that cruel, to deprive our friend—"
"Mr. O'Reilly has never asked me to sit to him."
"But you know I mean to do so when I have finished my Stolen Child," said
Cornelius, whose look vainly sought hers.
"Allow me to suggest a subject," rather eagerly said Mr. Trim: "if it won't do, you need not mind, you know. Did you ever read 'The Corsair,' Ma'am?"
"Yes," impatiently replied Miss Russell.
"Then what do you say to Medora?"
"Medora, my favourite heroine!" exclaimed Cornelius; "that is not a bad idea, Trim."
He looked at his betrothed; she was looking at Mr. Trim, who, as usual, was in a state of blindness.
"Medora in her bower," he resumed, "or parting from Conrad, or watching for his return—do you object, Ma'am?"
"Not if you will sit for Conrad," she replied, her eyes beaming scorn on his ungainly person.