"Perhaps you have never heard very much of any kind, or else your
imagination overshadows your other faculties. In fact I think it does,
for did you not at first regard me as a painted lady who had stepped
from the canvas to the floor?"

"I confess that I was greatly confused and startled."

"In what respect did you see such a close resemblance?"

Dennis hesitated.

"Are you not able to tell?" asked she.

"Yes," said Dennis, with heightened color, "but I do not like to say."

"But I wish you to say," said she, with a slightly imperious tone.

"Well, then, since you wish me to speak frankly, it was your expression.
As you stood by the picture you unconsciously assumed the look and
manner of the painted girl. And all the evening and morning I had been
troubling over the picture and wondering how an artist could paint so
lovely a face, and make it express only scorn and pride. It seemed to
me that such a face ought to have been put to nobler uses."

Miss Ludolph bit her lip and looked a little annoyed, but turning to
Dennis she said, with some curiosity: "You are not a bit like the man
who preceded you. How did you come to take his place?"

"I am poor, and will gratefully do any honest work rather than beg or
starve."