I wondered who 'Ingred' was! The name struck my fancy immensely, and so did the face.

You remember we removed to Rotherwood at the end of July, and all the rest of the summer I wondered about the portrait.

I used to come up here and sit when I felt very lonely, and it seemed company, somehow.

You can't think how fond I got of it.

I suppose I was rather silly and absurd, but I knew nobody in Grovebury then, and Mother was ill in her room, and Father away all day--anyhow I got into the habit of talking to it as if it were a girl friend, and showing it my paintings, and my pressed flowers, and everything I was doing.