" And Mr.
Blyth skipped out of the room as nimbly as if he had been fifteen
instead of fifty.
No sooner was Valentine's back turned than Mrs. Blyth's hand was passed
under the pretty swan's-down coverlet that lay over her couch, as if in
search of something hidden beneath it. In a moment the hand reappeared,
holding a chalk drawing very neatly framed. It was Madonna's copy from
the head of the Venus de' Medici--the same copy which Zack had honored
with his most superlative exaggeration of praise, at his last visit to
the studio. She had not since forgotten, or altered her purpose of
making him a present of the drawing which he had admired so much. It
had been finished with the utmost care and completeness which she could
bestow upon it; had been put into a very pretty frame which she had
paid for out of her own little savings of pocket-money; and was now
hidden under Mrs. Blyth's coverlet, to be drawn forth as a grand
surprise for Zack, and for Valentine too, on that very evening.
After looking once or twice backwards and forwards between the copyist
and the copy, her pale kind face beaming with the quiet merriment that
overspread it, Mrs. Blyth laid down the drawing, and began talking with
her fingers to Madonna.
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