Page:Margaret Sherwood--A Puritan in Bohemia.djvu/93

A Puritan Bohemia "Those children all look ill," remarked Mrs. Kent sadly, as she guided Anne down the narrow alley way. "Most of them are bow-legged."

"Oh dear!" groaned Anne, "I never thought of that! I just saw how picturesque it all was, the bright kerchiefs and the wrinkled faces and the brown curls of the children. I don't believe I've got any human instincts. Why are people made with eyes that see only one thing and hearts that wish only one thing, unless they are meant to have it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Only that I can't imagine how one can look upon the world as anything except material for pictures. It is maddeningly full of things to paint. There is no time to lose."

"You don't lose much."

"I know. But it all seems so selfish. An idea gets hold of me and then the heavens and earth seem made to help me express it. Patches of colour on garden walls, and the sunlight on far-off things,