At eleven o’clock on the morning of the 1st of March—the day following that on which Miss Demolines had written her note—the easel was put up and the canvas was placed on it in Mrs. Broughton’s room. Mrs. Broughton and Clara were both there, and when they had seen the outlines as far as it had been drawn, they proceeded to make arrangements for their future operations. The period of work was to begin always at eleven, and was to be continued for an hour and a half or for two hours on the days on which they met. I fear that there was a little improper scheming in this against the two persons whom the ladies were bound to obey. Mr. Dobbs Broughton invariably left his house soon after ten in the morning. It would sometimes happen, though not frequently, that he returned home early in the day—at four perhaps, or even before that; and should he chance to do so while the picture was going on, he would catch them at their work if the work were postponed till after luncheon. And then again, Mrs. Van Siever would often go out in the morning, and when she did so, would always go without her daughter. On such occasions she went into the City, or to other resorts of business, at which, in some manner quite unintelligible to her daughter, she looked after her money. But when she did not go out in the morning, she did go out in the afternoon, and she would then require her daughter’s company. There was some place to which she always went of a Friday morning, and at which she stayed for two or three hours. Friday therefore was a fitting day on which to begin the work at Mrs. Broughton’s house. All this was explained between the three conspirators. Mrs. Dobbs Broughton declared that if she entertained the slightest idea that her husband would object to the painting of the picture in her room, nothing on earth would induce her to lend her countenance to it; but yet it might be well not to tell him just at first, perhaps not till the sittings were over—perhaps not till the picture was finished; as, otherwise, tidings of the picture might get round to ears which were not intended to hear it.
“Poor dear Dobbs is so careless with a secret.” Miss Van Siever explained her motives in a very different way. “I know mamma would not let me do it if she knew it; and therefore I shall not tell her.”
“My dear Clara,” said Mrs. Broughton with a smile, “you are so outspoken!”
“And why not?” said Miss Van Siever. “I am old enough to judge for myself. If mamma does not want to be deceived, she ought not to treat me like a child. Of course she’ll find it out sooner or later; but I don’t care about that.”
Conway Dalrymple said nothing as the two ladies were thus excusing themselves.
“How delightful it must be not to have a master,” said Mrs. Broughton, addressing him.
“But then a man has to work for his own bread,” said he. “I suppose it comes about equal in the long run.”
Very little drawing or painting was done on that day. In the first place it was necessary that the question of costume should be settled, and both Mrs. Broughton and the artist had much to say on the subject. It was considered proper that Jael should be dressed as a Jewess, and there came to be much question how Jewesses dressed themselves in those very early days. Mrs. Broughton had prepared her jewels and raiment of many colours, but the painter declared that the wife of Heber the Kenite would have no jewels. But when Mrs. Broughton discovered from her Bible that Heber had been connected by family ties with Moses, she was more than ever sure that Heber’s wife would have in her tent much of the spoilings of the Egyptians. And when Clara Van Siever suggested that at any rate she would not have worn them in a time of confusion when soldiers were loose, flying about the country, Mrs. Broughton was quite confident that she would have put them on before she invited the captain of the enemy’s host into her tent. The artist at last took the matter into his own hand by declaring that Miss Van Siever would sit the subject much better without jewels, and therefore all Mrs. Broughton’s gewgaws were put back into their boxes. And then on four different times the two ladies had to retire into Mrs. Broughton’s room in order that Jael might be arrayed in various costumes—and in each costume she had to kneel down, taking the hammer in her hand, and holding the pointed stick which had been prepared to do duty as the nail, upon the forehead of a dummy Sisera. At last it was decided that her raiment should be altogether white, and that she should wear, twisted round her head and falling over her shoulder, a Roman silk scarf of various colours.
“Where Jael could have gotten it I don’t know,” said Clara.
“You may be sure that there were lots of such things among the Egyptians,” said Mrs. Broughton, “and that Moses brought away all the best for his own family.”
“And who is to be Sisera?” asked Mrs. Broughton in one of the pauses in their work.
“I’m thinking of asking my friend John Eames to sit.”
“Of course we cannot sit together,” said Miss Van Siever.
“There’s no reason why you should,” said Dalrymple.
