"Please clean your brushes and put away your paints and all that smells so horribly, at once! The house reeks, and I have a friend coming to see me this afternoon!"
Nell said, "Yes, Aunt Kezia," and a gleam lit her eye. She went back to the Stronghold, and washed her brushes with slow care in turpentine. There was an air of waiting about her. She lifted Jim into his cage, and dropped it behind the lounge. Presently an irate voice rang up the stairs:—
"Eileen! Eileen!"
Ah expression of grim satisfaction overspread her features. The voice ascended with its owner.
"How dare you, Eileen? What is this horrible smell?"
"Smell, Aunt Kezia? Do you mean the turps?"
"I suppose so! It is filthy! I told you I expect a visitor. It is positively disgraceful—"
"You told me to wash my brushes, Aunt Kezia."
Nell's tone was as soft as butter.
"Certainly I told you to! You are being unwarrantably impertinent! You—"