At first the old lady damped Gerard's courage terribly.

At each visit she fished out of holes and corners drawings and paintings, some of them by her own hand, that seemed to him unapproachable; but if the artist overpowered him, the woman kept his heart up.

She and Reicht soon turned him inside out like a glove: among other things, they drew from him what the good monks had failed to hit upon, the reason why he did not illuminate, viz., that he could not afford the gold, the blue, and the red, but only the cheap earths; and that he was afraid to ask his mother to buy the choice colours, and was sure he should ask her in vain.

Then Margaret Van Eyck gave him a little brush--gold, and some vermilion and ultramarine, and a piece of good vellum to lay them on.

He almost adored her.