There was one which he did paint at once, however--though no one saw it but Della. It was the picture of a slim young woman with gray eyes and an old felt hat on her head, standing with her fingers tangled in the mane of a chestnut horse.
If there was a heartache in the work, if the brush touched the slim figure caressingly and lingered wistfully upon the face, no one knew but Chip, and Chip had learned long ago to keep his own counsel. There were some thoughts which he could not whisper into even Silver's ear.
The Little Doctor leaned from the window and called down the hill to her recovered patient--more properly, her nearly recovered patient; for Chip still walked with the aid of a cane, though by making use of only one stirrup he could ride very well. He limped up the hill to her, and sat down on the top step of the porch.
“What's the excitement now?” he asked, banteringly.
“I've got the best, the most SPLENDID news--you couldn't guess what in a thousand years!”
“Then I won't try. It's too hot.” Chip took off his hat and fanned himself with it.
“Well, can't you LOOK a little bit excited? Try and look the way I feel! Anybody as cool as you are shouldn't suffer with the heat.”
“I don't know--I get pretty hot, sometimes. Well, what is the most splendid news? Can't you tell a fellow, after calling him up here in the hot sun?”
“Well, listen. The Gilroy hospital--you know, where Cecil is”--Chip knew--“has a case of blighted love and shattered hopes”--Chip's foolish, man-heart nearly turned a somersault. Was it possible?--“and it's the luckiest thing ever happened.”
“Yes?” Chip wished to goodness she would get to the point. She could be direct enough in her statements when what she said was going to hurt a fellow. His heart was thumping so it hurt him.
“Yes. A doctor there was planning to get married and go away on his honeymoon, you know--”
Chip nodded, half suffocated with crowding, incredulous hopes.
“Well, and now he isn't. His ladylove was faithless and loves another, and his honeymoon is indefinitely postponed. Do you see now where the good news comes in?”
Chip shook his head once and looked away up the grade. Funny, but something had gone wrong with his throat. He was half choked.