s, and Arthur had
made up his mind that in fairness to her they could not marry till she
was nineteen. She consulted Susie Boyd, whose common sense prevented her
from paying much heed to romantic notions of false delicacy.

'My dear, you'd take his money without scruple if you'd signed your
names in a church vestry, and as there's not the least doubt that you'll
marry, I don't see why you shouldn't now. Besides, you've got nothing
whatever to live on, and you're equally unfitted to be a governess or a
typewriter. So it's Hobson's choice, and you'd better put your exquisite
sentiments in your pocket.'

Miss Boyd, by one accident after another, had never seen Arthur, but
she had heard so much that she looked upon him already as an old friend.
She admired him for his talent and strength of character as much as for
his loving tenderness to Margaret. She had seen portraits of him, but
Margaret said he did not photograph well. She had asked if he was
good-looking.

'No, I don't think he is,' answered Margaret, 'but he's very paintable.'

'That is an answer which has the advantage of sounding well and meaning
nothing,' smiled Susie.

She believed privately that Margaret's passion for the arts was a not
unamiable pose which would disappear when she was happily married. To
have half a dozen children was in her mind much more important than to
paint pictures. Margaret's gift was by no means despicable, but Susie
was not convinced that callous masters would have been so enthusiastic
if Margaret had been as plain and old as herself.

Miss Boyd was thirty. Her busy life had not caused the years to pass
easily, and she looked older. But she was one of those plain women whose
plainness does not matter. A gallant Frenchman had to her face called her
a _belle laide_, and, far from denying the justness of his observation,
she had been almost flattered. Her mouth was large, and she had little
round bright eyes. Her skin was colourless and much disfigured by
freckles. Her nose was long and thin. But her face was so kindly, her
vivacity so attractive, that no one after ten minutes thought of her
ugliness. You noticed then that her hair, though sprinkled with white,
was pretty, and that her figure was exceedingly neat. She had good hands,
very white and admirably formed, which she waved continually in the
fervour of her gesticulation. Now that her means were adequate she took
great pains with her dress, and her clothes, though they cos