Page:Margaret Sherwood--A Puritan in Bohemia.djvu/70

62 "Of course! That is one of the commonplaces of the studio. But there ought to be some correspondence between outward fact and one's inner sense of things. You can't spin truth wholly out of your own brain. I am sure that this attempt to paint abstractions is only a fad. You will outgrow it."

Mrs. Kent smiled. She liked the way in which the two friends patronized each other. Helen started in dismay.

An hour passed. Again Anne's voice broke the silence.

"Isn't that colouring an impertinence to nature? Do I bother you? Am I a nuisance?"

"Rather."

"I wish to learn," she remarked meekly.

"You are an exceedingly belligerent pupil."

"I'll go away in a minute. I just want to ask why you degrade part of nature as unworthy of your work. It all seems to me worth reproducing as perfectly as possible—the little common things that the