rge, clear grey eyes as he took
her drawings and said he would be glad to assist her, and knew that
henceforth the tangled path would be smoothed and widened. She stood at the
back of his chair during the hour's sitting, and with peculiar interest
watched the strokes of his brush as the portrait grew under his practised
hand. When Irene rose, the orphan moved away and began to scrutinize the
numerous pictures scattered about the room. A great joy filled her heart
and illumined her face, and she waited for the words of encouragement that
she felt assured would be spoken. The artist looked over her sketches
slowly, carefully, and his eye went back to her brilliant countenance as if
to read there answers to ciphers which perplexed him. But yet more baffling
cryptography met him in the deep, flashing, appealing eyes, on the crimson,
quivering lips, on the low, full brow, with its widely separated black
arches. Evidently the face possessed far more attraction than the drawings,
and he made her sit down beside him, and passed his hand over her head and
temples, as a professed phrenologist might preparatory to rendering a
chart.

"Your sketches are very rough, very crude, but they also display great
power of thought, some of them singular beauty of conception; and I see
from your countenance that you are dissatisfied because the execution falls
so far short of the conception. Let me talk to you candidly; you have
uncommon talent, but the most exalted genius cannot dispense with laborious
study. Think well of all this."

"I have thought of it; I am willing to work any number of years; I have
decided, and I am not to be frightened from my purpose. I am poor, I can
barely buy the necessary materials, much less the books, but I will be an
artist yet. I have decided, sir; it is no new whim; it has been a bright
dream to me all my life, and I am determined to realize it."

"Amen; so let it be, then. I shall remain here some weeks longer; come to
me every day at ten o'clock, and I will instruct you. You shall have such
books as you need, and with perseverance you have nothing to fear."

He went into the adjoining room, and returned with a small volume. As he
gave it to her, with some directions concerning the contents, she caught
his hand to her lips, saying hastily--

"My guardian angel certainly brought you here to spend the winter. Oh, sir!
I will prove my gratitude for your goodness by showing that I am not
unworthy of it. I