hough the fact that he had made a heartier meal
than either of the ladies had not escaped him.

By and by he had his way, and took Charlotte out to the garden. Little
Madam Chase had been put to bed at what she called "early candle-light,"
because such an hour best suited her.

"Well, are you going to do me the honour of telling me all about it?" Mr.
Brant asked, as he settled himself upon the old bench by Charlotte's
side. He scanned her closely once more in the waning light.

"What do you want me to tell you?"

"Just what I ask--all about your coming here. How you get on. What it
means to you. Your hopes--your fears, if you have any. I realize, better
than you do, perhaps, that this is not a small venture for you to make.
I am interested--you understand how interested--to know just the
situation."

His tone was that of a brother, warm and kind. She responded to it.

"I am doing as well as I could expect. Almost every day I have a
sitter--sometimes two. My friends are very good; they bring me every one
who will come. People seem to like the things I do--some of them."

"Almost every day you have a sitter!" he repeated. "Do you call that
doing well? How long have you been here?"

"Just seven weeks. Yes, I do call that doing well. It takes time to
become established, of course. Now that I have made pictures of many
of the prominent people others will follow, I'm confident. You know this
isn't the portrait season--too many have cameras of their own and are
taking snapshots of outdoor scenes, with themselves in the foreground."

"You don't find yourself wishing you had stayed in the city, as I
advised?"

"Not a bit. I want more experience first. I want to be able to do work
I needn't apologize for when I really begin with a city studio."

"You are doing finished work, in my opinion."

"Not in mine."

He laughed. "There is nothing weak about your will," said he.

"I hope not. I need a strong one."

"Granted, if you mean to persist in making your own way. But I live in
hope that when you have demonstrated to your own satisfaction that you
are perfectly competent to hew out that way for yourself, you will be
willing to let some stouter pair of arms take a turn with the axe."

His tone had meaning in it, but she turned it aside.

"Could anybody take your studio away from you? Even though you don't do
it for a living, but only because you adore it, could you be induced to
give it up?"

"I'm not trying to i