A lot of them were just sketches that I did when she was here in the house four or five years ago," answered Bertram; "like this, for instance." And he pulled into a better light a picture of a laughing, dark-eyed girl holding against her cheek a small gray kitten, with alert, bright eyes.

"The original and only Spunk," he announced.
"What a dear little cat!" cried Marie.
"You should have seen it--in the flesh," remarked Cyril, dryly.

"No paint nor painter could imprison that untamed bit of Satanic mischief on any canvas that ever grew!" Everybody laughed--everybody but Billy.

Billy, indeed, of them all, had been strangely silent ever since they entered the studio.

She stood now a little apart.