Taine?
When did you return to Fairlands? Is Miss Taine with you?"
"Louise is abroad," she answered. "I--I preferred California. I arrived
this afternoon." She went a step toward him. "You--you don't seem very
glad to see me."
The painter colored, but she continued impulsively, without waiting for
his reply. "If you only knew all that I have been doing for you!--the
wires I have pulled; the influences I have interested; the critics and
newspaper men that I have talked to! Of course I couldn't do anything in a
large public way, so soon after Mr. Taine's death, you know; but I have
been busy, just the same, and everything is fixed. When our picture is
exhibited next season, you will find yourself not only a famous painter,
but a social success as well." She paused. When he still did not speak,
she went on, with an air of troubled sadness; "I _do_ miss Jim's help
though. Isn't it frightful the way he disappeared? Where do you suppose he
is? I can't--I won't--believe that anything has happened to him. It's all
just one of his schemes to get himself talked about. You'll see that he
will appear again, safe and sound, when the papers stop filling their
columns about him. I know Jim Rutlidge, too well.
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