Mr. Gaythorne kept his promise, and before Robert Barton left them, the picture was sent to the corner house.
Mr. Barton, who had just finished his sketch of Dot and the kitten, had that moment invited Olivia to look at it.
"I may touch it up a bit more, but I suppose it will do now," he said, in a tone of complacency.
"Do! it is beautiful—it is perfectly charming. Oh, if we were only rich enough to buy it for ourselves, but," looking at him severely, "you know what my husband said this morning, Mr. Barton, that he would not allow me to accept it as a gift. You are to take it round to that picture dealer's in Harbut Street, and see if they will not give you a fair price for it, and then you must set about something bigger for the Royal Academy." And though Robert Barton shook his head in a melancholy dissenting fashion, he knew that Dr. Luttrell had been right.
"It is beautiful—it is perfectly charming."
"I should have liked you to have it," he said, with a sigh, "but I suppose beggars ought not to be generous. If I only get on, I will paint Dot again;" and then Martha had come in with the picture.
"There is no light now. I shall have to wait till to-morrow, but of course your old gentleman knows that."
Robert Barton always spoke of him as the old gentleman, but when Olivia had first mentioned his name, he had seemed a little startled, and had questioned her about him.