rrespondence
is far from being large. His chief duty has been that of reading to
me in the evening. For many years my eyes have not been so strong as
a painter's ought to be, and the oculist whom I consulted told me
that the strain of the painter's work was quite as much as my eyes
ought to bear, and that I could not afford much eyesight for reading
purposes. I am passionately fond of reading. To be without the
pleasure that books can afford me would be to make me miserable, and
I have looked upon my secretary's duty of reading aloud to me as an
important one. If you would take his place you would be conferring
the greatest service upon me."

'"Mr. D'Arcy," I said, "I suspect you."

'"Suspect me, Miss Wynne?"

'"I suspect that generous heart of yours. I suspect you are merely
inventing a post for me to fill, because you pity me."

'"No, Miss Wynne; upon my honour this is not so. I will not deny that
if it were not in your power to do me the service that I ask of you,
I should still feel the greatest disappointment if you passed from
under this roof. Your scruples about living here as you lived during
your illness--simply as my guest--I understand, but do not approve.
They show that you are not quite so free from the bondage of custom
as I should like every friend of mine to be. The tie of friendship
is, in my judgment, the strongest of all ties, stronger than that of
blood, because it springs from the natural kinship of soul to soul,
and there is no reason in the world why I should not offer you a home
as a friend, or why, if the circumstances of our lives were reversed,
you should not offer me one. But in this case it is the fact that the
service I am asking you to render me is greater than any service I
can render you."

'I was so deeply touched by his words and by his way of speaking
them, that my lips trembled, and I could make no reply.

'"It is a shame," he said, "for me to talk about business so soon
after your recovery. Let us leave the matter for the moment, and come
to me in the studio during the morning, and let me show you the
pictures I am painting, and some of my choice things."

'The morning wore on, and still I sat pondering over the situation in
which I found myself. The servant came and removed the breakfast
things, and her furtive glances at me showed that I was an object at
once familiar and strange to her. But very little attention did I pay
to her, in such a whirl of thoughts as I then w