This board seems to remind Mr.Blyth of some duty connected with it.

He places it against two chairs, in a good light; then approaching a shelf on which some plaster-casts are arranged, takes down from it a bust of the Venus de Medici--which bust he next places on his old office stool, opposite to the two chairs and the drawing-board.

Just as these preparations are completed, the door of the studio opens, and a very important member of the painter's household--who has not yet been introduced to the reader, and who is in no way related either to Valentine or his wife--enters the room.
This mysterious resident under Mr.Blyth's roof is a Young Lady.
She is dressed in very pretty, simple, Quaker-like attire.

Her gown is of a light-gray color, covered by a neat little black apron in front, and fastened round the throat over a frill collar.

The sleeves of this dress are worn tight to the arm, and are terminated at the wrists by quaint-looking cuffs of antique lace, the only ornamental morsels of costume which she has on.