For a moment Olive hesitated. Then it struck her that she would enjoy sitting outdoors in the early autumn sunshine for a few hours each day with her friend. For Captain MacDonnell had become her friend by this time, she had no doubts on this point. Moreover, she had made up her mind she must soon go away. She had planned to take a course in nursing so as to fit herself to be more useful, and there was really no reason for further delay.
She happened to mention this fact to Captain MacDonnell one day and it was remarkable after that what a time he took to finish his sketch.
The truth was the artist made not one sketch but half a dozen.
Jim and Ruth were delighted with his success, so that Captain MacDonnell finally persuaded Olive to allow him to attempt a painting.
The work was undertaken inside the Lodge living room. Olive was dressed in an old gold silk, and the artist insisted that she needed a background of strange oriental colors.
One end of the great room was therefore changed into a studio.
Fortunately Ruth and Olive had still in their possession a number of lovely old silks and draperies which the Ranch girls had brought back from their trip to Italy many years before.
One day, after he had been working for about a month, Olive slipped quietly into the studio without the artist's hearing her. She found him sitting before his easel smoking, but frowning and looking less happy than he had in some time.
But as he caught sight of Olive his expression changed.
"I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank you for making me so lovely? I don't mind being handed down to posterity in such a delightfully untruthful picture," Olive remarked gayly.