Selma and Pauline were pleased at the result, and Selma said that without having known what they wanted, it was precisely what they wanted. Other members of the family came in to see it, and it was generally admired, although its oddness made viewers nervous, unused as they were to anything but the most solemn approach to a painting. Nell whispered to Mr. Troy that, when he came to paint her, she hoped he would not find her face so pale as Selma’s appeared, and asked if she should apply carmine to her cheeks. Casey assured her that it would not be necessary and that his approach to every sitter was individual.

After the playing-card canvas, he painted Penelope and Nell, in that order, because they had privately decided to have it so. He worked exactly eight days on each picture, Nell chose to wear her ball gown, to get the full use of it and be able always to remember it, she said. Penelope wore her old best gray, but Mr. Troy made it and her look anything but drab. In fact, Penelope’s portrait had something in it more innocently girlish than did either of the pictures of the Davis sisters. He gave Nell a more worldly look than she usually wore, although there was a touch of the wistful in her eyes that muted somewhat the richness of the creamy lace and green gown and cameo brooch. Each lady praised the other’s likeness extravagantly and secretly preferred her own, believing that Mr. Troy had somehow or other seen her as she really was.

Finding himself less busy for a few days in early August, Leon put himself at Casey’s disposal, and Casey quickly set to work. He knew what he wanted, and when he explained his concept to Leon, Leon agreed to it. Casey used a large canvas and painted the master of Beulah Land full figure against a somewhat stylized background that showed the house and some trees and two peacocks. It was a handsome job of work, and everyone said so. Sarah insisted that it be hung over the mantel in the big drawing room even before it was varnished and framed. They could take it down again for that, she said.

It was now late August, and although Casey had made a beginning of his portrait of the nearly ten-year-old Rachel, there was still Sarah, who begged him to be patient, “for it is our busiest time,” and he insisted that he must move on to Savannah as soon as practicable in September.