Page:Arthur Stringer - Twin Tales.djvu/270

260 He thought of that sepulchral pair, immured in their withered and Old World narrownesses, but he thought of them without pity. They were as set as granite, those two old vultures, and nothing would ever move them—would ever change them.

"It will mean just keeping on in the same old way until the end," he heard the voice of Julia Keswick saying.

"But surely there's some way out for them," he protested without giving much thought to his words.

"There is!" asserted the girl with a flash of what seemed defiance on her face.

"What is it?" he asked.

"There is a painting I haven't shown you."

He noticed for the first time that her face had grown almost colorless. He could see the lips that carried a touch of rebelliousness, framing themselves into what seemed a line of fortitude. It added to her air of maturity. Yet she became girlish again as she met his glance with what was almost a look of audacity.

"I didn't intend you to see it," she told