that was not the bargain, please!" said Arabian.

"Not the bargain?" said Garstin, with an air of humorous surprise.

"Oh, no. You kindly said that if I gave up my time to you, as I have
done, very much of my time, you would give me the picture when it was
finished. That was the bargain between us. But I did not say I would
allow you to exhibit my picture."

"But I told you before I ever put a smudge of paint on the canvas that I
should want to exhibit it."

"That is quite true."

"Well, then?"

"Two must speak to make a bargain. Is it not so?" He spoke to Sir
Seymour.

"I presume so," said the latter, very solemnly.

He had realized that this odd scene had been brought about deliberately,
and perhaps by both of the men who stood before him. Garstin had
certainly started it, but Arabian had surely with purpose, taken the cue
from Garstin.

"Ah! You hear!"

"I do!" said Garstin, composedly.

"Well, Dick Garstin, I did not say I would permit my picture to be
exhibited by you. And that was on purpose. I intended to wait until I
saw how you would make me appear. I have waited. There I am!" He pointed
to the portrait. "It is fine, perhaps, as you say. But I do not choose
that people should see that and be told, 'That is Nicolas Arabian.' I do
not give you permission to show that portrait."

"You don't like it?"

"You have made of me a beast. That is what I say."

"Sorry you think so! But what's to be done? That picture is worth from
eight hundred to a thousand pounds at the very least. You don't suppose
I am going to give it to you without letting the people who care about
my stuff have a look at it? Why, where is your sense of fairness, my
boy?"

"I do not know really what you mean by that!"

"Well, I ask you, Sir Seymour, would it be fair that I should have all
my trouble for nothing? He can have the picture. But I want my _kudos_.
Eh?"

"I quite understand that," said Sir Seymour, calmly.

Arabian turned round and faced him. And as he did so Sir Seymour said to
himself:

"The fellow's been drinking heavily."

This thought had not occurred in his mind till this moment, but he felt
certain that Garstin's sharp eyes had noticed the fact sooner, probably
directly they had seen Arabian at the street door. No doubt the very
stiff whisky-and-soda Arabian had just drunk had made it more obvious.
Anyhow, Sir Seymour had no doubt at all about it now. It was not
noticeable in Arabian's face. But his mann