torespectability?"
Jill blushed uncomfortably. She had forgotten for the moment that shehad refused him as a pupil on the ground of having no vacancy.
"It--it isn't that," she tried to explain. "I can quite believe thatyou are _very_ respectable but--Oh! can't you understand?--I wanted toteach children?"
Apparently he did not consider that sufficient reason to preclude herfrom teaching him also; he did not seem to think that there might beother reasons which had led up to this--to him--very trivial one.
"I don't know any more than a child would," he replied, "and I shouldpay three times the fee--double for being an adult, treble for being amale adult which some ladies seem to consider an additionalinconvenience."
"Excuse me," put in Jill severely, "if I undertook to teach you mycharge would be the same for you as for any other pupil, but I am afraidI must decline."
"Very well," he answered huffily, "the decision of course rests withyou, but I won't attempt to disguise the fact that I am verydisappointed."
He walked towards the door, but stopped, and came back a little way.
"If it is anything to do with--that is I mean to say--I will pay inadvance," he blurted out.
The girl bit her lip.
"It has nothing to do with that," she cried sharply. "Oh, dear me, howvery dense you are! Don't you see that it wouldn't do for me to teachyou?"
He stared at her.
"Good heavens!" he exclaimed, "you don't mean to say that you're afraidof Mrs Grundy? She would never get up those stairs I can assure you,and if she did why we'd stick her on the model throne and paint her."
Jill laughed in spite of herself. It sounded very ridiculous put intoplain English, and yet after all he had pretty well hit upon the truth.
"It isn't only Mrs Grundy," she replied, "but I--I don't feel equal toundertaking you. I think it would be better if you went to someone--older."
"When I read your advertisement," he said stiffly, "I imagined that youwould be older. But I don't see that it much matters. I want to studyart. You wish to teach it and have no other pupils. Why not try me fora quarter and see how it works?"
It was a great temptation, Jill still hesitated. Absurd as she felt itto be she was unmistakably nervous at the thought of teaching this bigyoung man, while he, noting her indecision, stood waiting anxiously forher to speak, too engrossed with his project to consider her at all; shemerely represented a means to an end, the object through which he mightaccomplish the only real ambition of his life.
"I don't know," she said slowly after a long pause, "I think perhaps Imight try as you suggest, for the quarter but--I wish you had been agirl."
"Thank you," he answered. "I am sorry that I cannot agree with you.Shall I stay this morning?"
Jill looked rather alarmed at this proposal, but, she reasoned withinherself, if he were coming at all he might as well begin at once, so,after another long pause, and a dubious look round the none too tidystudio, she gave an ungracious assent, whereupon he immediatelycommenced divesting himself of his overcoat, an action he regretted whenit was too late, and, but for fear of hurting her feelings, he wouldhave slipped into it again for the fire was nearly out and the roomstruck chill; he wondered how she sat there painting with her smallhands almost blue with cold.
"The servant," explained Jill airily with the astuteness of a veryobservant nature, "will be here with the coals shortly; she usuallybrings them up at about eleven."
He looked rather disconcerted.
"Oh, I'm not cold in the least," he exclaimed untruthfully, "it is quitewarm to-day."
"Yes," replied the girl shortly, "the thermometer is below Zero, Ishould say. Will you sit here please?"
She placed him as near the fire as possible and provided him withdrawing-materials, then going over to a shelf began to rummage amongendless books and papers for a suitable copy simple enough for him tostart on.
"I wish to go in for the figure from life," he modestly observed.
Jill fairly gasped at his audacity; she had understood him to say thathe was a novice.
"How much," she asked, pausing in her search and regarding himcritically the while she put the question, "or how little drawing did Iunderstand you to say you had done up to the present?"
"I haven't done any," he answered meekly.
Jill went on with her search again.
"We will commence with flat copies," she crushingly remarked, "afterthat we will attempt the cast, and then--but there is ample time inwhich to think about such lofty aspirations."
Mr St. John was not the mildest tempered of mortals but he sat muteunder the rebuff and took the copy which she handed him without comment.It was an easy outline of a woman's head, absurdly easy the new pupilconsidered it, and yet, to use his own vulgar phraseology after he hadbeen working laboriously for ten minutes and had succeeded in rubbing ahole in the paper where the prominent feature should have been, itstumped him. Miss Erskine rose and stood over him with a disagreeable,I-told-you-so expression on her face.
"I can hardly accuse you of idleness," she said, "you have been mostenergetic as the paper evinces. I think we had better start again on afresh piece."
She fetched another sheet of drawing paper and, taking the seat he hadvacated, pinned it on the board, while he stood behind her, his browsdrawn together in the old scowl, and a gleam of angry resentment in hiseyes.
"The paper," Jill continued in measured cutting tones, "was not wasted;it has served its purpose; for you have learnt your first lesson in art.It is a useful lesson, too, as it applies to other things that areworth mastering. The will to accomplish a thing is not theaccomplishment, remember; it is necessary to the accomplishment, ofcourse, but one must work hard, fight against difficulty, and defeatdefeat. Now that you have acknowledged the difficulty we will see whatwe can do to overcome it."
The young man stared at her with, it must be confessed, a certain amountof vexed amusement in his gaze. He wondered what sort of an old womanshe would be, and finally decided that she would develop into anacidulated spinster.
"If you will kindly give me your attention," she began with the newdignity which was so unbecoming to her, and so very unpleasant to herpupil, "I will--"
But here an interruption occurred in the welcome sound of someonemounting the stairs, followed by much shuffling and the flop ofsomething heavy outside the door.
"Coals!" purred Jill with evident relief, and then he noticed that shewas shivering slightly.
"Come in," she cried.
The shuffling re-continued but instead of the appearance of the coalsthe sound merely heralded a retreat, whoever it was had commenced thedescent, of that there could be no shadow of a doubt. Jill sprang upand went to the door, and St. John heard her remonstrating at somelength with a person named Isobel, an obdurate person seemingly, and onewho used the expression aint a good deal, and found some difficulty withher aspirates. After a long and subdued warfare of words the shufflingfeet recommenced their descent, and then the door flew open and MissErskine appeared dragging in the scuttle. St. John strode swiftly toher assistance but Jill waved him peremptorily back.
"Thank you," she said, "I can manage; it is not at all heavy."
"No," he answered, giving her a straight look as he grasped the handle,"not more than quarter of a ton I should say. Allow me if you please."
Jill released her hold and watched him with limp resignation; that deftusage of her own weapons had been too much for her. It was ungenerousof him, she considered, and to do him justice he was rather of the sameopinion.
"There!" he exclaimed, as he threw on fresh coals, and, going down onhis knees, raked out the dead ashes from the lower bars, "it will soonburn up now. Had the cold upset Isobel's equilibrium too?"
It was an unlucky slip, but fortunately for his own peace of mind, MrSt. John did not notice the offensive and unnecessary little word at theend of his query, nor, having his back towards her, could he see Jill'squick flush of annoyance.
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p; "I don't understand you," she answered curtly.
"I beg your pardon," he remarked, nettled by her tone. "I hope youdon't think me impertinent; but I thought there had been a littledifficulty about bringing in the coals."
"So there was," she replied, and smiled involuntarily at therecollection. Then she glanced at her art student as he knelt upon thehearth, and from him to the models showing up white and still againstthe dingy curtain which formed their background; Mars Borghese, theApollo Belvidere, the Venus de Medici, and a smaller figure of the Venusde Milo; a good collection, a collection which both she and her fatherhad
The Triumph of Jill Page 3
