k sidelong glance.

"And what does a woman's idealism come to?"

"Generally to this--that she's tried to paint her own portrait large,
with a big brush, and made a mess of the canvas."

There was a sad inflection in the girl's voice, and she looked away as
she spoke. The look and the tone were details that lay beyond the range
of Audrey's observation, and she felt hurt, though she hardly knew why.
She rose, carefully adjusting her veil and the lace about her throat.

"I adore idealists--I can't help it; I'm made that way, you see."

She shrugged her shoulders, in delicate deprecation of the decrees of
Fate.

Katherine did not see, but she went down with Miss Craven to the door.
Ted had proposed tea on the leads, and Audrey had agreed that it would
have been charming--idyllic--if she could have stayed. But she had
looked at the skylight, and then at her own closely fitting gown, and
Propriety, her guardian angel, had suggested that she had better not.

"Ted," said Katherine an hour later, "I've got an idea. What a
magnificent model Miss Craven would make!"

Ted made no answer; but he flung his sketch-book to the other end of the
room, where it took Apollo neatly in the eye.

"I've failed miserably in my Mrs. Rogers," said he, and went off for
solitary contemplation on the leads.

Katherine picked up the book and looked at it.

He _had_ failed in his Mrs. Rogers; but in a corner of a fresh page he
had made a little sketch of a face and figure which were not those of
Mrs. Rogers. And that was a failure too.

CHAPTER IV

There was a certain truth in Hardy's description of Ted Haviland. Ted
had all a baby's fascination, a baby's irresponsibility, and a baby's
rigid tenacity of purpose. There perhaps the likeness ended. At any
rate, Ted had contrived to plan a career for himself at the age of
seven, had said nothing about it for ten years, and then quietly carried
it through in spite of circumstances and the influential members of his
family. These powers had been against him from the first. His mother had
died in giving him birth; and as his father chose to hold him directly
responsible for the tragedy, his early years were passed somewhat under
a cloud. Katherine was his only comfort and stay. The girl had five
years the start of him, which gave her an enormous advantage in dealing
with the uncertain details of life. Her method was simplicity itself. It
was summed up in the golden rule: Take your own