Tiffany Girl by Deeanne Gist Page B

aren’t making any windows about the fiery furnace Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into.”
    He laughed. “Perhaps I can talk someone into commissioning one, but what I’d really like to use it for is daffodils.”
    “Daffodils?”
    With a sheepish expression, he shrugged. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’m growing a bit weary of always making windows for churches. All they ever want are traditional religious figural pieces. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for creativity. For quite some time, I’ve been wanting to try some nature-inspired still lifes or even a panorama of a pastoral scene.”
    “Like your paintings,” she said.
    “Like my paintings.” He smiled at her, then glanced at Nan as she held up a section of aquamarine glass to the window.
    “Ah, look at that one, Miss Jayne.”
    “Wouldn’t it make the perfect scales for a mermaid?”
    “A mermaid.” Shaking his head, he chuckled. “It would indeed. Now, is this the glass you’ve selected so far?”
    “Miss Upton has. I just do the restocking, but wait until you see what she’s selected.”
    With a lift of her chin, Nan proceeded to show him each piece, then pointed to its corresponding color on the cartoon.
    With hands in his pockets, Mr. Tiffany listened and watched. When she was finished, he looked at Flossie. “What do you think?”
    Biting her lip, she glanced at Nan. The girl’s eyes turned steely, her posture stiff.
    “For the most part I loved what she picked,” Flossie said, keeping her tone neutral.
    “You’d make no changes, then?” he asked.
    She shifted her weight. “Well, perhaps, but only a couple.”
    “Which ones?”
    Without looking Nan’s way, Flossie walked to a pile of glass the girl had deemed unworthy, flipped through it, then removed a piece the deep color of a ginger plant. She held it up to the light. “I’d have used this for the section of fabric that runs along the Virgin Mary’s lap—right here.” She pointed to the corresponding part on the cartoon. “I think that piece needs to be fairly dark in order to add a bit more shadow and dimension.”
    He nodded. “Since you are doing the preliminary selecting and the final decision will occur later, you need to give your selector as many choices as you can without including the entire storeroom. That’s the first thing to keep in mind. So from now on, Miss Upton, I recommend you choose a few more options for your selector. Second, you were right, Miss Jayne, to note the piece Miss Upton chose for the Virgin’s lap wasn’t quite right, but I’m afraid yours isn’t, either.”
    “No?” she asked.
    “No, the color is good, but you need a piece of heavily wrinkled glass. That will give the illusion of the fabric being gathered in her lap, and will also give the dimension you were missing before. Let me see if I can find one.”
    For the next thirty minutes Mr. Tiffany critiqued Nan’s selections, giving both the girls a chance to find different pieces before selecting even better ones himself. A couple of times Flossie felt like her selections were just as good as his, but she savored every moment of the time he spent with them. His vast wealth had not overly impressed her, but his vast talent had.
    By the time he left, she had learned more about color, texture, and design than she had in a month of classes at the design school. “Oh, Nan, isn’t he wonderful?”
    “I could hardly understand him with that lisp.” With littleregard to their fragility, she stacked the pieces they’d decided upon onto a tray.
    “Goodness, I hardly even notice his lisp anymore.”
    “You two are certainly very friendly.”
    Flossie began to return the unused pieces to their trunks and barrels. “We became acquainted the day he and Mrs. Driscoll came to the School of Applied Design.”
    Picking up the tray of glass, Nan gave her a hard look. “Well, don’t think that just because he gave you a little attention today means he’s grooming you to be a