Jim Corrance accepted a clerkship in a big firm on the Stock Exchange. A

but atmospheric, hall-marked, so to speak, by Bastien Lepage. Below this strip of opalescent mist, in solid contrast, were painted the roofs of the village. These, too, were handled capitally even by the beginners. The foreground represented a field full of waving grasses, grasses from which the sun had sucked the chlorophyl, leaving them pale and attenuated. In this field grew one tree, looking much the

g similar masterpieces in a fine frenzy of open-air excitement. Saphir himself was at Gretz, but he came over to Barbi

l monkeys," observ

trying to copy what one man ha

Saphir had talked alone to him; a

say to you

not

nt the

rivate means, and I told him your

o

unate. Of course he meant that

if you happen to cho

of March Pynsent a

ake a studio somewhere in Kensington. Lady Randolph

s oozed from every pore. The picture exhibited pitiful signs of excessive labour. Pynsent obtained his

as that?" said Pynsent

the v-v-village. There

t of

wash it. Can you read

nged if

-nothing i

th. She's lost

nd," said Mark, grinning, but il

stains on the

d. I rubbed i

d; he was not

fellows take you

d Mark. "What d

hey won't hang that. But I've told Lady Randolph and Miss Kirtling that you will have a '

" sai

thful spaniel. They walked for miles. Finally, Pynsent discovered a bank of cool-looking

affaire!" exc

he m-m

s. These Barbizon pea

sent posed the girl upon the bank. She sat with her elbows on her knees and her

, but the treatment will redeem that. I spotted that girl las

d. Pynsent had not laid a brush upon it, but Mark was miserably conscious that his friend's gen

ent, after he had forbidden h

ot m-m-mine

ha

ve p-painted i

oo

a place on the line, honourable mention, a

inted t

d in the background Madame Siron smiled genially, murmuring that monsieur certainly must add a tiny sketch to her little collection.

it is not signed. You m

roduced a bru

ressed Pynsent and Mark in broken English, "I am not easily moved-I! When I lose a friend of ze blood-how do you call it?-a relation, yes, ze tears do not come-no! And when I hear Wagner-zoum, soum, zoum-z

d him. Mark listened, stupefied

ign it!" t

smile upon his wide mouth. The

eu!" ejacul

nt's bold signature; below it

red at Mark, who met the startled interrogati

he indicated Pynsent. "I cannot s-send it to the Salon as my

eld out

"if you were not an Angliche, I should a

Pynsent growled; "I ne

y an intuition that something was ab

ivate means. You are my master; you have seen everything I have done. This, you understand, does no

er an

me," continued Mark. "I ask you

gruffly. He put on

ible," Pynsent m

t go on, Pynsent; but I don't regret the last three years. They would have be

ll you d

now-yet,"

and a passionate protester, wooed in vain, much to the Admiral's dismay, a dismay tempered by Betty's assurance that she did not wish to leave her uncle for many a long year. A prosperous rector proposed in a letter which began: "My dear Miss Kir

elf at Randolph House, after she had kissed her sovereign's hand. Like the young man in the parable,

East End. His lodge in Sutherland was turned into a sanatorium, whither were sent at his expense clergymen who had broken down in health. David Ross had the highlander's prophetic faculty and intuition. Where others crawled, he leaped to conclusions respecting his fellow-creatures. When he met Mark, for instance, he divined his mental condition: the suffering denied expression, the disappointme

. Listening to David Ross, it seemed incredible that he should have pinned his ambition to the painting of a picture. At the end of

ld his

rashly," he

ork to overcome his stammer. When he told his family of hi

he Squire was sca

ne living," blea

te with old Archie,

Betty: "He is the right man to l

," Betty answe

he will be ki

worked with Ross, seeing but l

to whom was left everything the kind, eccentric old man possessed. Betty broke down when she saw Mark's sympathetic face. She had nursed her uncle

o many frie

policemen-always round the corner when most wanted. I mig

outh, and shut it

e, Lady Randolph. Miriam Hazelby helped Betty to pack up the Admiral's china, and, when Mark called, played watchdog. She liked Mark and respected him; b

ight hours. I confess that I am anxious about her. When I left her I told the Admiral that she

n to prai

ood people to whose standard she tries to attain. It has been easy

lent lady

ll keep an eye on

th eyes," retor