[The Europeans by Henry James]@TWC D-Link bookThe Europeans CHAPTER V 12/34
My children have my daguerreotype.
That is quite satisfactory." "I won't promise," said Felix, "not to work your head into something!" Mr.Wentworth looked at him and then at all the others; then he got up and slowly walked away. "Felix," said Gertrude, in the silence that followed, "I wish you would paint my portrait." Charlotte wondered whether Gertrude was right in wishing this; and she looked at Mr.Brand as the most legitimate way of ascertaining.
Whatever Gertrude did or said, Charlotte always looked at Mr.Brand.It was a standing pretext for looking at Mr.Brand--always, as Charlotte thought, in the interest of Gertrude's welfare.
It is true that she felt a tremulous interest in Gertrude being right; for Charlotte, in her small, still way, was an heroic sister. "We should be glad to have your portrait, Miss Gertrude," said Mr. Brand. "I should be delighted to paint so charming a model," Felix declared. "Do you think you are so lovely, my dear ?" asked Lizzie Acton, with her little inoffensive pertness, biting off a knot in her knitting. "It is not because I think I am beautiful," said Gertrude, looking all round.
"I don't think I am beautiful, at all." She spoke with a sort of conscious deliberateness; and it seemed very strange to Charlotte to hear her discussing this question so publicly.
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