One of the immediate results of this
publicity was a visit from Shepson, with two or three orders in his
pocket, as he put it. He surveyed the studio with fresh disgust,
asked Stanwell why he did not move, and was impressed rather than
downcast on learning that the painter had not decided whether he
would take any more orders that spring.
"You might haf a studio at Newport," he suggested. "It would be
rather new to do your sitters out of doors, with the sea behind
them--showing they had a blace on the gliffs!"
The picture produced a different and less flattering effect on the
critics. They gave it, indeed, more space than they had ever before
accorded to the artist's efforts, but their estimate seemed to
confirm Caspar Arran's forebodings, and Stanwell had perhaps never
despised them so little as when he read their comments on his work.
On the whole, however, neither praise nor blame disquieted him
greatly. He was engrossed in the contemplation of Kate Arran's
happiness, and basking in the refracted warmth it shed about her.
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