"I venture to think it one of my most contentious studies from actual
nature."
While Mr. Blyth and Zack had been whispering together, Mat had walked
away from them quietly towards one end of the room, and was now
standing close to a door, lined inside with sheet iron, having bolts at
top and bottom, and leading down a flight of steps from the studio into
the back garden. Above this door hung a large chalk sketch of an old
five-barred gate, being the identical study from nature, which, as
Valentine imagined, was at that moment the special object of interest
to Mat.
"No, no! don't trouble to get the sketch now," said Zack, once more
answering for his friend. "We are going out to get freshened up by a
long walk, and can't stop. Now then, Mat; what on earth are you staring
at? The garden door, or the sketch of the five-barred gate?"
"The picter, in course," answered Mat, with unusual quickness and
irritability.
"It shall be taken down for you to look at close to-night," said Mr.
Blyth, delighted by the impression which the five-barred gate seemed to
have produced on the new visitor.
On leaving Mr. Blyth's, young Thorpe and his companion turned down a
lane partially built over, which led past Valentine's back garden wall.
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