'Then I will do this part of the work,' said he, taking the pencil from her fingers. 'Give me your place, please.'
Esther gave him her chair and took his. And then she sat down and watched the drawing. Now and then her eyes made a swift passage to his face for a half second, to explore the features so well known and yet so new; but those were a kind of fearful glances, which dreaded to be caught, and for the most part her eyes were down on the drawing and on the hands busied with it. Hands, we know, tell of character; and Esther's eyes rested with secret pleasure on the shapely fingers, which in their manly strength and skilful agility corresponded so well to what she knew of their possessor. The fingers worked on, for a time, silently.
'Pitt, this is oddly like old times!' said Esther at last.
'Things have got into their right grooves again,' said he contentedly.
'But what are you doing? That is beautiful!—but you are making it a great deal too elaborate and difficult for my scholar. She is not far enough advanced for that.'
'I'll take another piece of paper, then, and begin again. What do you want?'
'Just a tree, lightly sketched, and a bit of rock under it; something like that. She is a beginner.'
'A tree and a rock?' said Pitt. 'Well, here you shall have it. But,
Queen Esther, this sort of thing cannot go on, you know?'
'For a while it must.'
'For a very little while! In fact, I do not see how it can go on at all. I will go and see your school madam and tell her you have made another engagement.'