to do anything else took him by surprise.

"I got ten dollars for that," she said hesitatingly, "and I could have
got more for a larger one, but I had to do that in my room, during
recreation hours. If I had more time and a place where I could
work"--she stopped timidly and looked tentatively at Jack. But he was
already indulging in a characteristically reckless idea of coming back
after he had left Sophy, buying the miniature at an extravagant price,
and ordering half a dozen more at extraordinary figures. Here, however,
two passers-by, stopping ostensibly to look in the window, but really
attracted by the picturesque spectacle of the handsome young rustic and
his schoolgirl companion, gave Jack such a fright that he hurried
Sophy away again into the side street. "There's nothing mean about that
picture business," he said cheerfully; "it looks like a square kind of
game," and relapsed into thoughtful silence.

At which, Sophy, the ice of restraint broken, again burst into
passionate appeal. If she could only go away somewhere--where she saw no
one but the people who would buy her work, who knew nothing of her past
nor cared to know who were her relations! She would work hard; she knew
she could support herself in time. She would keep the name he had given
her,--it was not distinctive enough to challenge any inquiry,--but
nothing more. She need not assume to be his niece; he would always be
her kind friend, to whom she owed everything, even her miserable life.
She trusted still to his honor never to seek to know her real name, nor
ever to speak to her of that man if he ever met him. It would do no good
to her or to them; it might drive her, for she was not yet quite sure of
herself, to do that which she had promised him never to do again.

There was no threat, impatience, or acting in her voice, but he