Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IIL PAINTING A VENUS. He was heaping some more coals on the fire when Gwynnie entered the studio-garret next morning. With one hand she clasped round her shoulders a coarse woollen shawl, with the other she held up her skirts which hung loosely about her. Her feet were bare. She had slept feverishly and fitfully. All night she had been awakened and startled by dreams. Each half hour's sleep had been followed by a long vigil, full of the ardours of plighted and enfeebled by the lassitudes of broken promises. She would have had no difficulty in acting rightly had she known where her duty lay. But there was no one to whom she could turn for a word of advice, and she often got out of bed and prayed in the clear moonlight on her knees for grace. Often she seemed to see her father's face, but it told her little; sometimes it seemed to frown, sometimes to smile, but she found comfort nowhere, save in a voice that told her that we do right when we believe what we are doing is right. " How good of you to come," said Lewis ; " I was afraid that you would change your mind." " Why should we change our minds when we think we are doing right ?" she answered, unaffectedly, but with a desire to excuse her conduct. Both were very much embarrassed. He, even more than she, dreaded the first step, and cowardly tried to put it off by suggesting that she had better wait till the room was warmer; she, on the other hand, having come for a certain purpose, did not understand why it should be delayed. " I think the room is quite warm ; I am ready when you are," she answered, with the faintest tremble in her voice. Lewis placed her in the centre of the room where the light would fall directly upon her, then he arranged his easel in front of her, and stood waiting ; Brav...