The Ranch Girls and Their Great Adventure Part 21

Suddenly she exclaimed.

"Look here, Captain MacDonnell, didn't I hear Frank say once that you used to be fond of drawing when you were a small boy, that you were once undecided whether to be an artist or a soldier?"

Captain MacDonnell smiled. "I believe so, I've an idea I was a pretty conceited youngster and would have made as much of a failure at one as I have of the other."

But Olive refused to pay any attention to this speech.

For a moment Captain MacDonnell forgot himself thinking of how attractive Olive looked.

He had not remembered thinking of this especially when they had met in England, only that she was unusual looking and not in the least like an American or English woman. It was almost as if she might be Spanish.

Captain MacDonnell also had some Spanish blood farther back in his own family, when the Spanish were the great voyagers and visited and settled on the coasts of Ireland.

But Olive went on talking.

"I do wish you would undertake the drawing again, it might at least amuse you, and there are so many interesting people and scenes you could attempt out here."

Captain MacDonnell shook his head.

"I'm afraid the time has gone by for that," he returned.

But Olive had a kind of gentle, sensible persistency that nearly always wins its way.

"Still, there wouldn't be any harm in just seeing if it might amuse you," she went on. "I am sure it would be a kind of relief."

Captain MacDonnell again looked at Olive. Her deep toned skin was softly flushed and her dark eyes brilliant with earnestness.

He laughed a little. "Of course it will, a relief to you, so for that reason I'll attempt it. But on one condition?"

Olive flushed a little with embarra.s.sment, since she had never wholly gotten over her shyness. However, she realized that Captain MacDonnell was teasing her. He did very often when he was in a gay humor and Olive felt it was good for her, as she was too inclined to be grave.

"What is the condition?" she inquired. "Of course it will be relief to me to know you are happier," at which Captain MacDonnell felt that Olive had scored.

"Why, that I won't have to keep on calling you Miss Van Mater. It is too much of a name, just as mine is."

Captain MacDonnell was doubtful as to how Olive would receive this suggestion. She seemed more formal than the rest of the family and he had thought her colder until her great kindness to him. Now he at least knew better than to misunderstand her shyness for coldness, as a good many people did.

Olive replied perfectly naturally.

"Of course I will. The truth is I have always thought of you as Bryan, as Jack and Frank always talked of you by this name."

His promise would have really pa.s.sed out of Captain MacDonnell's mind if Olive had not supplied him with a great variety of drawing materials within a few days, which she had taken a good deal of trouble to secure for him.

But as a matter of fact she was really surprised to discover how much talent he had. But then Captain MacDonnell used to work for many hours each day, so that it was not long before his former facility came back to him. More than this, he discovered to his own surprise as well, that he could do a great deal better work than he had as a boy. Somehow the skill must have developed in him unheeded as he was growing older.

She came out on the lawn one afternoon and discovered Captain MacDonnell at work a little distance off.

He had evidently persuaded one of the cowboys to pose for him, as the man and his horse were standing in a picturesque att.i.tude only a few feet away.

Olive walked over to them and stood studying the drawing until Captain MacDonnell turned round to speak to her.

"Why don't you say it is good?" he demanded boyishly. "You know I've half an idea it is."

Olive nodded enthusiastically.

"It's like Remington."

Captain MacDonnell laughed. "Not quite. Still I am getting on. But it seems to me you are neglecting me lately. I say, suppose you pose for me. That would be ripping. You won't be sensitive if I don't make much of a go just at first."

For a moment Olive hesitated. Then it struck her that she would enjoy sitting outdoors in the early autumn sunshine for a few hours each day with her friend. For Captain MacDonnell had become her friend by this time, she had no doubts on this point. Moreover, she had made up her mind she must soon go away. She had planned to take a course in nursing so as to fit herself to be more useful, and there was really no reason for further delay.

She happened to mention this fact to Captain MacDonnell one day and it was remarkable after that what a time he took to finish his sketch.

The truth was the artist made not one sketch but half a dozen.

Jim and Ruth were delighted with his success, so that Captain MacDonnell finally persuaded Olive to allow him to attempt a painting.

The work was undertaken inside the Lodge living room. Olive was dressed in an old gold silk, and the artist insisted that she needed a background of strange oriental colors.

One end of the great room was therefore changed into a studio.

Fortunately Ruth and Olive had still in their possession a number of lovely old silks and draperies which the Ranch girls had brought back from their trip to Italy many years before.

One day, after he had been working for about a month, Olive slipped quietly into the studio without the artist's hearing her. She found him sitting before his easel smoking, but frowning and looking less happy than he had in some time.

But as he caught sight of Olive his expression changed.

"I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank you for making me so lovely? I don't mind being handed down to posterity in such a delightfully untruthful picture," Olive remarked gayly.

"Oh, it's untruthful enough," Captain MacDonnell answered. "It is well you came in just when you did, as I was thinking of making an end of it."

"Then I shouldn't have forgiven you."

Captain MacDonnell nodded.

"That is what I was afraid of, that and that you would not be willing to sit for me again."

Olive laughed. "Oh, you must get hold of someone more attractive than I am for the next portrait. After a while, as you are so much better, you'll be wanting to go back to London to work seriously. You know you have promised me that?"

Captain MacDonnell shook his head.

"No," he returned. "Oh, I don't mean that I did not promise, I only mean that I shall probably not keep my word. I think I shall give up and allow myself to become a kind of good for nothing, half invalid, as soon as I am separated from you."

However, as she had by this time grown accustomed to her companion's swift changes of mood, so unlike her own, Olive only laughed?

"Shall I pose for you again today?"

Then there was silence in the room for half an hour while Bryan worked.

Finally he put down his brushes.