She took it with a little mock curtsey, pouting her lip slightly, as if drawing the Venus was work not much to her taste--smiled when she saw Valentine shaking his head, and frowning comically at her--then went away at once to the drawing-board, and sat down opposite Venus, in which position she offered as decided a living contradiction as ever was seen to the assertion of the classical idea of beauty, as expressed in the cast that she was about to copy.
Mr.Blyth, on his side, set to work at last on the Landscape; painting upon the dancing Bacchantes in the foreground of his picture, whose scanty dresses stood sadly in need of a little brightening up.

While the painter and the young lady are thus industriously occupied with the business of the studio, there is leisure to remark on one rather perplexing characteristic of their intercourse, so far as it has yet proceeded on this particular winter's morning.
Ever since Madonna has been in the room, not one word has she spoken to Valentine; and not one word has Valentine (who can talk glibly enough to himself) spoken to her.

He never said "Good morning," when he kissed her--or, "Thank you for finding my lost colors,"-- or, "I have set the Venus, my dear, for your drawing lesson to-day." And she, woman as she is, has actually not asked him a single question, since she entered the studio! What can this absolute and remarkable silence mean between two people who look as affectionately on each other as these two look, every time their eyes meet! Is this one of the Mysteries of the painter's fireside?
Who is Madonna?
What is her real name besides Mary?
Is it Mary Blyth?
***** Some years ago, an extraordinary adventure happened to Valentine in the circus of an itinerant Equestrian Company.

In that adventure, and in the strange results attending it, the clue lies hidden, which leads to the Mystery of the painter's fireside, and reveals the story of this book..