tudio, and desired to be favoured with a sight of some of my paintings;
well, I showed them some, and, after looking at them with great
attention, they went aside and whispered. 'He'll do,' I heard one say;
'Yes, he'll do,' said another; and then they came to me, and one of them,
a little man with a hump on his back, who is a watchmaker, assumed the
office of spokesman, and made a long speech--(the old town has been
always celebrated for orators)--in which he told me how much they had
been pleased with my productions--(the old town has been always
celebrated for its artistic taste)--and, what do you think? offered me
the painting of the mayor's portrait, and a hundred pounds for my
trouble. Well, of course I was much surprised, and for a minute or two
could scarcely speak; recovering myself, however, I made a speech, not so
eloquent as that of the watchmaker of course, being not so accustomed to
speaking; but not so bad either, taking everything into consideration,
telling them how flattered I felt by the honour which they had conferred
in proposing to me such an undertaking; expressing, however, my fears
that I was not competent to the task, and concluding by saying what a
pity it was that Crome was dead. 'Crome,' said the little man, 'Crome;
yes, he was a clever man, a very clever man in his way; he was good at
painting landscapes and farmhouses, but he would not do in the present
instance were he alive. He had no conception of the heroic, sir. We
want some person capable of representing our mayor striding under the
Norman arch out of the cathedral.' At the mention of the heroic an idea
came at once into my head. 'Oh,' said I, 'if you are in quest of the
heroic, I am glad that you came to me; don't mistake me,' I continued, 'I
do not mean to say that I could do justice to your subject, though I am
fond of the heroic; but I can introduce you to a great master of the
heroic, fully competent to do justice to your mayor. Not to me,
therefore, be the painting of the picture given, but to a friend of mine,
the great master of the heroic, to the best, the strongest, [Greek
text],' I added, for, being amongst orators, I thought a word of Greek
would tell."

"Well," said I, "and what did the orators say?"

"They gazed dubiously at me and at one another," said my brother; "at
last the watchmaker asked me who this Mr. Christo was; adding, that he
had never heard of such a person; that, from my recommendation of him, he