, and with
it my eternal displeasure. I intend to make you suffer for your obstinacy.
You shall find, to your sorrow, that I am not to be trifled with, or my
name is not Leonard Huntingdon. Now go your own way, and find what a thorny
path you have made for yourself."

He pointed to the door as he had done years before, when the
boarding-school decree went forth, and without remonstrance she left him,
and sat down on the steps of the greenhouse. Soon after, the sound of his
buggy wheels told her that he had gone to town, and, leaning her cheek on
her hand, she recalled the painful conversation from first to last. That he
meant all he had threatened, and more, she did not question for an instant,
and, thinking of her future, she felt sick at heart. But with the shame and
sorrow came also a thrill of joy; she had burst the fetters: she was free.
Wounded affection bled freely, but brain and conscience exulted in the
result.

CHAPTER XIX

RUSSELL VISITS ELECTRA

The patient work of twelve months drew to a close; the study of years bore
its first fruit; the last delicate yet quivering touch was given; Electra
threw down palette and brush, and, stepping back, surveyed the canvas. The
Exhibition would open within two days, and this was to be her contribution.
A sad-eyed Cassandra, with pallid, prescient, woe-struck features--an
over-mastering face, wherein the flickering light of divination struggled
feebly with the human horror of the To-Come, whose hideous mysteries were
known only to the royal prophetess. In mute and stern despair it looked out
from the canvas, a curious anomalous thing--cut adrift from human help,
bereft of aid from heaven--yet, in its doomed isolation, scorning to ask
the sympathy which its extraordinary loveliness extorted from all who saw
it. The artist's pride in this, her first finished creation, might well be
pardoned, for she was fully conscious that the cloud-region of a painful
novitiate lay far beneath her; that henceforth she would never miss the
pressure of long-coveted chaplets from her brow; that she should bask in
the warm, fructifying rays of public favour; and measureless exultation
flashed in her beautiful eyes.

The door opened, and Russell came into the studio. She was not expecting
him; his sudden appearance gave her no time to adjust the chilling mask of
pride, and all her uncontrolled affection found eloquent language in the
joyful face.

"Russell! my own dear Russell!"