Barbara
observed this growing coolness in herself; and like a good and
honest lady was horrified and grieved, since her only wish was to
act faithfully and uprightly. It troubled her so much that she
prayed for a warmer heart, and at last wrote to her husband to beg
him, now that he was in the land of Art, to send her his portrait,
ever so small, that she might look at it all day and every day, and
never for a moment forget his features.
Willowes was nothing loth, and replied that he would do more than
she wished: he had made friends with a sculptor in Pisa, who was
much interested in him and his history; and he had commissioned this
artist to make a bust of himself in marble, which when finished he
would send her. What Barbara had wanted was something immediate;
but she expressed no objection to the delay; and in his next
communication Edmund told her that the sculptor, of his own choice,
had decided to increase the bust to a full-length statue, so anxious
was he to get a specimen of his skill introduced to the notice of
the English aristocracy. It was progressing well, and rapidly.
Meanwhile, Barbara's attention began to be occupied at home with
Yewsholt Lodge, the house that her kind-hearted father was preparing
for her residence when her husband returned. It was a small place
on the plan of a large one--a cottage built in the form of a
mansion, having a central hall with a wooden gallery running round
it, and rooms no bigger than closets to follow this introduction.
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