"
Prissie blushed and looked down.
"Don't be shocked, with me," said Hammond. "I can read your grateful
heart. Come this way"
They passed Maggie Oliphant and her two or three remaining satellites.
Prissie looked at her with longing and tripped awkwardly against her
chair. Hammond walked past Maggie as if she did not exist to him.
Maggie nodded affectionately to Priscilla and followed the back of
Hammond's head and shoulders with a supercilious, amused smile.
Hammond opened the outer drawing-room door.
"Where are we going?" asked Priscilla. "Are not the pictures here?"
"Some are here, but the best are in the picture gallery-- here to the
left and down these steps. Now, I'm going to introduce you to a new
world."
He pushed aside a heavy curtain, and Prissie found herself in a rather
small room, lighted from the roof. It contained in all about six or
eight pictures, each the work of a master.
Hammond walked straight across the gallery to a picture which occupied
a wall by itself at the further end. It represented a summer scene of
deep repose. There was water in the foreground, in the back tall
forest trees in the fresh, rich foliage of June. Overhead was a sunset
sky, its saffron and rosy tints reflected in the water below.
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