could reply Armour was by our side.

'Well?' he said, looking at Dora.

'It--it's very nice,' she stammered, 'but I miss YOU.'

'She only means, you know,' I rushed in, 'that you've put in everything
that was never there before. Accuracy of detail, you know, and so forth.
'Pon my word, there's some drawing in that!'

'No,' said Dora, calmly, 'what I complain of is that he has left out
everything that was there before. But he has won the gold medal, and I
congratulate him.'

'Well,' I said, uneasily, 'don't congratulate me. I didn't do it.
Positively I am not to blame.'

'His Excellency says that it reminds him of an incident in one of Mrs.
Steel's novels,' said Armour, just turning his head to ascertain His
Excellency's whereabouts.

'Dear me, so it does,' I exclaimed, eagerly, 'one couldn't name the
chapter--it's the general feeling.' I went on to discourse of the
general feeling. Words came generously, questions with point, comments
with intelligence. I swamped the situation and so carried it off.

'The Viceroy has bought the thing,' Armour went on, looking at Dora,
'and has commissioned me to paint another. The only restriction he makes
is--'

'That it shall be of the same size?' asked Dora.

'That it must deal with some phase of native life.'

Miss Harris walked to a point behind us, and stood there with her eyes
fixed upon the picture. I glanced at her once; her gaze was steady, but
perfectly blank. Then she joined us again, and struck into the stream of
my volubility.

'I am delighted,' she said, pleasantly, to Armour. 'You have done
exactly what I wanted you to do. You have won the Viceroy's medal, and
all the reputation there is to win in this place. Come and dine
tonight, and we will rejoice together. But wasn't it--for you--a little
difficult?'

He looked at her as if she had offered him a cup, and then dashed it
from his lips; but the occasion was not one, of course, for crying out.

'Oh no,' he said, putting on an excellent face. 'But it took a hideous
time.'

Chapter 2.X.

Within a fortnight I was surprised and a little irritated to receive
from Armour the amount of my loan in full. It was not in accordance
with my preconceived idea of him that he should return it at all. I had
arranged in my own mind that he should be governed by the most honest
impulses and the most approved intentions up to the point of departure,
but that he should never find it quite convenient to pay, and th