he stood before the glass, putting up her hand to her back
hair to extract the first dismantling hairpin, for a sleepless night,
when a knock at her door was followed by the words, "He's waitun' in
the parlor." The door was opened and the Irish girl put a card in her
hand.

XXIV.

The card was Ludlow's, and the words, "Do see me, if you can, for a
moment," were scribbled on it.

Cornelia ran down stairs. He was standing, hat in hand, under the leafy
gas chandelier in the parlor, and he said at once, "I've come back to
say it won't do. You can't come to paint Miss Maybough with me. It
would be a trick. I wonder I ever thought of such a thing."

She broke out in a joyful laugh. "I knew you came for that."

He continued to accuse himself, to explain himself. He ended, "You must
have been despising me!"

"I despised myself. But I had made up my mind to tell Charmian all
about it. There's no need to do that, now it's all over."

"But it isn't all over for me," said Ludlow gloomily. "I went straight
home from here, and wrote to Mrs. Maybough that I would paint her
daughter, and now I'm in for it."

He looked so acutely miserable that Cornelia gave way to a laugh, which
had the effect of raising his fallen spirits, and making him laugh,
too. They sat down together and began to talk the affair all over
again.

Some of the boarders who were at the theatre came in before he rose to
go.

Cornelia followed him out into the hall. "Then there is nothing for me
to do about it?"

"No, nothing," he said, "unless you want to take the commission off my
hands, and paint the picture alone." He tried to look gloomy again, but
he smiled.

Every one slept late at Mrs. Montgomery's on Sunday morning; all sects
united in this observance of the day; in fact you could not get
breakfast till nine. Cornelia opened her door somewhat later even than
this, and started at the sight of Charmian Maybough standing there,
with her hand raised in act to knock. They exchanged little shrieks of
alarm.

"Did I scare you? Well, it's worth it, and you'll say so when you know
what's happened. Go right back in!" Charmian pushed Cornelia back and
shut the door. "You needn't try to guess, and I won't ask you to. But
it's simply this: Mr. Ludlow is going to paint me. What do you think of
that? Though I sha'n't expect you to say at once. But it's so. Mamma
wrote to him several days ago, but she kept the whole affair from me
till she knew he w