The Sandcastle

keep your mouth shut.’

Artists do paint themselves in their sitters,’ said Rain, ‘often in quite material ways. Burne-Jones made all his people look thin and gloomy like himself. Romney always reproduced his own nose, Van Dyck his own hands.’

Every portrait is a self-portrait,’ said Rain.

‘You always make that futile remark,’ said Nan, ‘and I never do. Will there be company?’ Nan hated company. Mor liked it

‘As you know,’ said Bledyard, ‘we find it natural to make the distinction. Only we do not make it absolutely absolutely enough. When confronted with an object which is not a human being we must of course treat it reverently. We must, if we paint it, attempt to show what it is like in itself, and not treat it as a symbol of our own moods and wishes. The great painter the great painter is he who is humble enough in the presence of the object to attempt merely to show what the object is like. But this merely, in painting, is everything.’

How I agree with you! said Miss Carter. Distantly from the school the two-fifteen bell was heard ringing.

‘But,’ said Bledyard, ‘when we are in the presence of another human being, we are not confronted simply by an object — ’ He paused. ‘We are confronted by God.’

must have a very poor view of him indeed; and he was tempted to write her a note of apology. He resisted this temptation

Rain’s arrival created a stir.

Carde crossed the field, he passed near to Donald. ‘Your pappa’s poppet!’ he said - and he went away down the pitch dancing and whistling ‘A nice girl, a decent girl, but one of the rakish kind!’ and tossing the ball rhythmically up and down.

Mor was inclined to agree with Nan, and the whole story upset him considerably. He couldn’t think what it could mean; and he feared his children especially when they brought gifts. He said, however, ‘You’re fussing about nothing, Nan. It was just a nice idea. I expect Felicity thought of it.’

d. What annoyed him perhaps most of all about her was the exquisite calmness of her assumption that when she had made it clear that he was not to do something he would not do it.