THE STUDIO FAVORITE 269 



Grandmother and Tommy waited on the veran- 

 da then until they both came out together. Tommy 

 thought that Mr. Leonard looked like a king, al- 

 though I don't know why he should think so, as 

 he has never seen one. He has long black hair, 

 and instead of wearing a coat when it is cool, he 

 throws a little cape around his shoulders. He 

 is an artist, and has lived for many years in Paris. 

 He said it was likely that Grandmother had known 

 his mother long ago. He had come to live in the 

 little brown house because he had wished for a 

 quiet summer, and to paint a great deal, but it had 

 been lonely for his little girl. 



Then he asked Grandmother and Tommy to 

 go into his studio, which Tommy says was different 

 from any room he had seen before. It took up 

 nearly the whole of the little brown house, and 

 the ceiling was made of glass, through which they 

 looked up to the sky. Hanging on the walls he 

 saw three pictures of Lucy, and each one made 

 him think of the way she looked when he saw her 

 first in Secret Valley. 



Grandmother told Mr. Leonard all about me. 

 She said her little girl was never lonely, because 

 there was Tommy, and Little Trudy, and Philip 

 and Kate Hood for her to play with, and that we 

 had had visits also from Francis and Sallie. They 

 all laughed when Grandmother told them that she 

 had called Lucy the spirit of Secret Valley. 



What astonished Tommy more than anything 



