The next morning the Master turns out, bright and cheerful, to a household unwilling to respond to his mood. Iris struggles to get out the words to tell him that she will not sit for him, that she has seen how he paints her...
And the Master, who forbade her to look, jumps on this, asking Is this how his orders are obeyed when he is absent?
Margarethe is quick to say it was Casper's idea.
The Master shrugs, for he has no high opinion of Casper and far more important things on his mind. A patron is coming and the house must be set ready and the paintings positioned to the best light. So the girls are sent to meadow with nothing but a crust of bread for breakfast, there to run races to keep themselves warm in the cold.
Once in the meadow, Iris climbs the apple tree she climbed on the first day they came to the Master's household and she sees the patron, richly clad, coming. Curiosity overcomes her and she sneaks back. Hidden by the lower half of the Dutch door, she can hear that the Master is afraid of losing the patron's attention, even to the point of meekly accepting criticism of his work.
And then Iris suffers the frequent fate of those who eavesdrop: She hears more than she wants to. The patron comments on her looks. Her mother answers that her daughter is as clever as she is homely. Upon hearing that iris speaks English as well as Dutch the patron wishes her, as well as the painting, "Ugly Girl with Flowers," delivered to his house the next day.
Iris races away to collect her sister, riven through with shame and misery.
(to be continued)
The picture is a detail of Jan Lievens' "Portrait of a Girl."