第104章

'It is very good--unquestionably good,' said Mrs Dobbs Broughton. 'I do not for a moment doubt that you will make a great picture of it. It is just the subject for you, Conway; so much imagination, and yet such a scope for portraiture. It would be full of action, and yet such perfect repose. And the lights and shadows would be exactly in your line. I can see at a glance how you would manage the light in the tent, and bring it down just on the nail. And then the pose of the woman would be so good, so much strength, and yet such grace! You should have the bowl he drank the milk out of, so as to tell the whole story. No painter living tells a story so well as you do, Conway.' Conway Dalrymple knew that the woman was talking nonsense to him, and yet he liked it, and liked her for talking it.

'But Mr Dalrymple can paint his Sisera without making me Jael,' said Miss Van Siever.

'Of course he can,' said Mrs Broughton.

'But I never will,' said the artist. 'I conceived the subject as connected with you, and I will never disjoin the two ideas.'

'I think it no compliment, I can assure you,' said Miss Van Siever.

'And none was intended. But you may observe that artists in all ages have sought for higher types of models in painting women who have been violent or criminal, than have sufficed for them in their portraitures of gentleness and virtue. Look at all the Judiths and the Lucretias, and the Charlotte Cordays; how much finer the women are than the Madonnas and the Saint Cecilias.'

'After that, Clara, you need not scruple to be a Jael,' said Mrs Broughton.

'But I do scruple--very much; so strongly that I know I never shall do it. In the first place I don't know why Mr Dalrymple wants it.'

'Want it!' said Conway. 'I want to paint a striking picture.'

'But you can do that without putting me into it.'

'No;--not this picture. And why should you object? It is the commonest thing in the world for ladies to sit to artists in that manner.'

'People would know it.'

'Nobody would know it, so that you need care about it. What would it matter if everybody knew it? We are not proposing anything improper;--are we, Mrs Broughton?'

'She shall not be pressed if she does not like it,' said Mrs Broughton.

'You know I told you before Clara came in, that I was afraid it could not be done.'

'And I don't like it,' said Miss Van Siever, with some little hesitation in her voice.

'I don't see anything improper in it, if you mean that,' said Mrs Broughton.

'But, mamma!'

'Well yes; that is the difficulty, no doubt. The only question is, whether your mother is not so very singular, as to make it impossible that you should comply with her in everything.'

'I am afraid that I do not comply with her in very much,' said Miss Van Siever in her gentlest voice.

'Oh, Clara!'

'You drive me to say so, otherwise I should be a hypocrite. Of course Iought not to have said it before Mr Dalrymple.'

'You and Mr Dalrymple will understand all about that, I daresay, before the picture is finished,' said Mrs Broughton.

It did not take much persuasion on the part of Conway Dalrymple to get the consent of the younger lady to be painted, or of the elder to allow the sitting to go on in her room. When the question of easels and other apparatus came to be considered, Mrs Broughton was rather flustered, and again declared with energy that the whole thing must fall to the ground;but a few ore words from the painter restored her, and at last the arrangements were made. As Mrs Dobbs Broughton's dear friend, Madalina Demolines had said, Mrs Dobbs Broughton liked a fevered existence. 'What will Dobbs Broughton say?' she exclaimed more than once. And it was decided at last that Dobbs should know nothing about it as long as it could be kept from him. 'Of course he shall be told at last,' said his wife. 'I wouldn't keep anything from the dear fellow for all the world.

But if he knew it at first it would be sure to get through Musselboro to your mother.'

'I certainly shall beg that Mr Broughton may not be taken into confidence if Mr Musselboro is to follow,' said Clara. 'And it must be understood that I must cease to sit immediately, whatever may be the inconvenience, should mamma speak to me about it.'

This stipulation was made and conceded, and then Miss Van Siever went away, leaving the artist with Mrs Dobbs Broughton. 'And now, if you please, Conway, you had better go too,' said the lady, as soon as there had been time for Miss Van Siever to get downstairs and out of the hall-door.

'Of course you are in a hurry to get rid of me.'

'Yes, I am.'

'A little while ago I improperly said that some suggestion of yours was nonsense and you rebuked me for my blunt incivility. Might not I rebuke you now with equal justice?'

'Do so, if you will;--but leave me. I tell you, Conway, that in these matters you must either be guided by me, or you and I must cease to see each other. It does not do that you should remain here with me longer than the time usually allowed for a morning call. Clara has come and gone, and you also must go. I am sorry to disturb you, for you seem to be so very comfortable in that chair.'

'I am comfortable--and I can look at you. Come;--there can be no harm in saying that, if I say nothing else. Well;--there, now I am gone.'

Whereupon he got up from his arm-chair.

'But you are not gone while you stand there.'

'And you would really wish me to marry this girl?'

'I do--if you can love her.'

'And what about her love?'

'You must win it, of course. She is to be won, like any other woman.

The fruit won't fall into your mouth merely because you open your lips.

You must climb the tree.'