all like it just heaps better than Kensington."

"Does she live here?"

"She has rooms in the town and a studio down by the harbour, but she
goes about to a great many places sketching. You'd love her pictures."

"I wish I could see them."

"Perhaps she'd let me take you some day to her studio."

"Oh! do you think she really would? Do you know I've never been inside a
studio!"

Claudia laughed.

"You wouldn't want to if you'd had to sit as a model as often as I have!
Would she, Morland?"

"Rather not. As a family I reckon we're fed up with studios," returned
Morland. "Thank goodness I'm beyond the 'Bubbles' stage of beauty. It's
Madox's turn for that!"

"Don't congratulate yourself too soon. I heard Father say the other day
that you'd make an absolutely perfect study for 'Sir Galahad', and that
Violet must tell Lizzie to clean that suit of armour, for he meant to
begin it as soon as he'd finished 'Endymion'."

"Oh, strafe Sir Galahad!" groaned Morland. "The armour's the most
beastly uncomfortable hot stuff to wear you can imagine. I wish I had a
turned-up nose and freckles."

Lorraine, living in a modern unromantic house in the residents' suburbs
of Porthkeverne, had hitherto had little or no acquaintance with the
artist population of the town. They mostly lived in the old quarter, and
had studios close to the harbour, their colony being centred round the
Arts Club in the Guildhall. She had often watched them painting at their
easels in the narrow picturesque streets, and had longed for a more
intimate acquaintance. Their delightful Bohemian way of life had a
fascination for her. She sometimes wished her father were an artist
instead of a lawyer. It was so much more romantic to paint pictures than
to make people's wills or transfer their property.

"Dad's utterly practical," she confided to Claudia. "He's busy all day
at the office, and he prides himself on not being sentimental. He's
about as artistic as that cow!"

"I'd swop dads with you," said Claudia. "I wish mine went to an office
every day instead of to his studio."

"You won't forget about Miss Lindsay?"

"No, I'll try to take you, if you're really so keen about going."

Claudia was as good as her word, and one day came to school armed with a
special invitation for herself and Lorraine. The latter, much excited,
begged permission at home to accept.

"I think she's lovely, Mummie! Miss Lindsay, I mean. And I've never seen
a studio, and Clau