A ray of sunshine came aslant through the half-shut window, and played along the boy's clustering hair and smooth pale cheek. Sophy's gaze rested on him most benignly.
"Just so," said Vance; "and now be silent till I have got the attitude and fixed the look."
The artist sketched away rapidly with a bold practised hand, and all was silent for about half-an-hour, when he said, "You May get up, Lionel; I have done with you for the present."
SOPHY.—"And me too—may I see?"
VANCE.—"No, but you may talk now. So you had a doll? What has become of it?"
SOPHY.—"I left it behind, sir. Grandfather thought it would distract me from attending to his lessons and learning my part."
VANCE.—"You love your grandfather more than the doll?"
SOPHY.—"Oh! a thousand million million times more."
VANCE.—"He brought you up, I suppose? Have you no father,—no mother?"
SOPHY.—"I have only Grandfather."
LIONEL.—"Have you always lived with him?"
SOPHY.—"Dear me, no; I was with Mrs. Crane till Grandfather came from abroad, and took me away, and put me with some very kind people; and then, when Grandfather had that bad accident, I came to stay with him, and we have been together ever since."
LIONEL.—"Was Mrs. Crane no relation of yours?"
SOPHY.—"No, I suppose not, for she was not kind; I was so miserable: but don't talk of it; I forget that now. I only wish to remember from the time Grandfather took me in his lap, and told me to be a good child and love him; and I have been happy ever since."
"You are a dear good child," said Lionel, emphatically, "and I wish I had you for my sister."
VANCE.—"When your grandfather has received from me that exorbitant—not that I grudge it—sum, I should like to ask, What will he do with it? As he said it was a secret, I must not pump you."
SOPHY.—"What will he do with it? I should like to know, too, sir; but whatever it is I don't care, so long as I and Grandfather are together."
Here Waife re-entered. "Well, how goes on the picture?"
VANCE.—"Tolerably, for the first sitting; I require two more."
WAIFE.—"
