They found Katherine reading the ninety-first psalm
to Dorothy, who was lying restfully among her pillows,
with a look of peace in her eyes that was like balm
to the mother’s aching heart.
The moment Phillip Stanley caught sight of Katherine
he settled his chin with a resolute air, a sudden
purpose taking form in his thought.
“Emelie,” he said, in his sister’s
ear, “will you manage so that I can have a few
minutes’ conversation with Miss Minturn?”
She nodded, giving him a bright look, then went forward
to Dorothy’s side, while Dr. Stanley turned
to greet Katherine, who had risen upon their appearance.
Dr. Stanley asks some questions.
“We meet occasionally, Miss Minturn,”
Dr. Stanley observed in a genial tone, as he cordially
extended his hand to her. “I hope everything
is progressing satisfactorily in the junior class.”
“As far as I know, all is well,” she returned,
her scarlet lips parting in a smile that just showed
the tips of her white teeth, though she flushed slightly
under her companion’s glance. “I can
speak with authority for only one, however. I
am compelled to work pretty diligently; but I rather
enjoy that.”
“I am sure you do. I recall a fluent reading
from Horace, which I inadvertently interrupted on
the Ivernia, last fall, and which must have required
earnest application; and I also remember that that
same student could not be tempted from her task until
the lesson was done,” the gentleman rejoined,
jocosely. Then turning to Dorothy, he inquired:
“And how does my small niece find herself this
afternoon?”
“Miss Minturn, I have enjoyed my walk more than
I can tell you,” said Mrs. Seabrook, as she
removed her hat and wrap, but wondering at the unaccustomed
crimson in the girl’s cheeks. “And
now,” she added, “if you have time I would
like to show you a portfolio of engravings which Prof.
Seabrook received last week from an old classmate
who is now abroad.”
Katherine could never resist fine pictures, and followed
her hostess into an adjoining room, where the portfolio
was placed upon a table, and she was invited to inspect
its contents at her leisure, Mrs. Seabrook excusing
herself to prepare some nourishment for Dorothy.
Katherine found many of the engravings to be copies
of paintings by some of the great masters, and which
she had seen, in various galleries, the previous summer.
They were very finely executed, and she became so
absorbed in them that she was unconscious of the presence
of anyone until Dr. Stanley’s smooth, cultured
tones fell upon her startled ears.
“That is a beautiful thing, Miss Minturn,”
he observed, bending nearer to look more closely at
a copy of a section of the ‘Creation’
as painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in
the Vatican at Rome. “The foreshortening
and perspective there is wonderful! Michael Angelo
was the master of them all! Of course, you have
seen many of the wonders of that great storehouse of
art?”
