little sense of relief. No other friends. He ought to have sympathized
with the girl's loneliness; he might have asked her how she could
possibly endure life without companionship, but he did not; he only
felt that other friends might have been rough and ill-bred; this girl
derived her refinement, not only from nature, but also from separation
from the other girls who might in the ordinary course have been her
friends and associates. And if no other friends, then no lover.
Arnold was only going to visit the young lady as her brother; but
lovers do not generally approve the introduction of such novel effects
as that caused by the appearance of a brand-new and previously
unsuspected brother. He was glad, on the whole, that there was no
lover.

Then he left her, and went home to his studio, where he sat till
midnight, sketching a thousand heads one after the other with rapid
pencil. They were all girls' heads, and they all had hair parted on
the left side, with a broad, square forehead, full eyes, and straight,
clear-cut features.

"No," he said, "it is no good. I cannot catch the curve of her
mouth--nobody could. What a pretty girl! And I am to be her brother!
What will Clara say? And how--oh, how in the world can she be, all at
the same time, so young, so pretty, so learned, so quick, so
sympathetic, and so wise?"




CHAPTER IV.