nt much like."

"Well, I pass him every day comin' from school, and he always looks up
at me eager without sayin' nothing. But this morning he says, `Little
gal,' says he, `I want to put you into my picture.'"

"Lor'!" put in Agnetta, "whatever can he want to paint _you_ for?"

"So I didn't say nothing," continued Lilac, "because he looked so hard
at me that I was skeert-like. So then he says very impatient, `Don't
you understand? I want you to come here in that frock and that bonnet
in your hand, and let me paint you, copy you, take your portrait. You
run and ask Mother.'"

"I never did!" exclaimed Agnetta, moved at last. "Whatever can he want
to do it for? An' that frock, an' that silly bonnet an' all! He must
be a crazy gentleman, I should say." She gave a short laugh, partly of
vexation.

"But that ain't all," continued Lilac; "just as I was turning to go he
calls after me, `What's yer name?' And when I told him he shouts out,
`_What_!' with his eyes hanging out ever so far."

"Well, I dare say he thought it was a silly-sounding sort of a name,"
observed Agnetta.

"He said it over and over to hisself, and laughed right out--`Lilac
White! White Lilac!' says he. `What a subjeck! What a name!
Splendid!' An' then he says to me quieter, `You're a very nice little
girl indeed, and if Mother will let you come I'll give you sixpence for
every hour you stand.' So then I went an' asked Mother, and she said
yes, an' then I ran all the way here to tell you."

Lilac looked round as she finished her wonderful story. Agnetta's eyes
were travelling slowly over her cousin's whole person, from her face
down to the thick, laced boots on her feet, and back again. "I can't
mek out," she said at length, "whatever it is that he wants to paint you
for, and dressed like that! Why, there ain't a mossel of colour about
you! Now, if you had my Sunday blue!"

"Oh, Agnetta!" exclaimed Lilac at the mention of such impossible
elegance.

"And," pursued Agnetta, "a few artificials in yer hair, like the ladies
in our _Book of Beauty_, that 'ud brighten you up a bit. Bella's got
some red roses with dewdrops on 'em, an' a caterpillar just like life.
She'd lend you 'em p'r'aps, an' I don't know but what I'd let you have
my silver locket just for once."

"I'm afraid he wouldn't like that," said Lilac dejectedly, "because he
said quite earnest, `_Mind_ you bring the bonnet'."

She saw herself for a moment in the splendid