Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Part one - VI
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Twice he found Miss Winge alone, and once Francesca. They
were always in Jenny’s room, which was cosy and warm,
although the windows stood wide open until the last rays of
light had faded. The stove glowed and sparkled, and the kettle
on the spirit-lamp was singing. He knew every article in the
room now — the drawings and photographs on the walls, the
flower vases, the blue tea-set, the bookshelf by the bed, and the
easel with Francesca’s portrait. The room was always a little
untidy; the table by the window was littered with tubes and
paint-boxes, sketch-books and sheets of drawing-paper; Jenny
kicked brushes and painting rags under it as she was laying
the tea. There was often a litter of needlework or half-darned
stockings on the sofa to be put away before sitting down to
butter the biscuits. A spirit-lamp and toilet trifles were
frequently left lying about and had to be removed.
While these preparations were going on, Gram would sit by
the stove and talk to Francesca, but sometimes Cesca would
take it into her head to be domesticated and let Jenny be lazy.
Jenny begged to be spared, but Cesca hustled about like a
whirlwind, putting all the stray articles where Jenny could not
find them afterwards, and ended up by putting drawing-pins
into pictures that would not hang straight, or curled themselves
on the wall, using her shoe as a hammer.
Gram could not understand Miss Jahrman at all. She was
always nice and friendly to him, but never as intimate and
confidential as on the day they had walked to Ponte Molle.
Sometimes she was strangely absent; she seemed not to grasp
what he said, although she answered kindly enough. Once or
twice he thought he bored her. If he asked how she was, she
hardly answered, and when he mentioned her picture with the
cypresses she said sweetly: “You must not be offended, Mr.
Gram, but I don’t care to speak of my work before it is finished.
Not now anyway.”
He noticed that Ahlin did not like him, and this egged him
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