ught the family strain must be unusually
strong. They had obviously been stern, masterful men, practical rather
than imaginative and not likely to be troubled by any emotional
weaknesses. Then she glanced at the picture of a young woman with a
face of singularly delicate beauty. Its expression was gentle and
pensive.

"My wife; she died in Simla twenty years ago," said Challoner gravely,
and passing on, stopped before a water-colour drawing of his son.

It had been painted when Bertram was young, and he had his mother's
dreamy look. Mrs. Chudleigh missed the hardness of expression that
marked the Challoners.

"A sketch rather than a finished study, but there's talent in it," she
remarked. "The subject's temperament has been cleverly seized; I have
met Captain Challoner."

"My wife's work," said the Colonel. "Although I value it, I have
thought she was mistaken in this drawing. My son is a man of action,
and this is the face of a sentimentalist."

"Ah!" said Mrs. Chudleigh; "his mother should know him best."

"Undoubtedly," agreed Challoner, who looked disturbed at the
suggestion. "Still, perhaps, in painting a portrait the artist may be
misled into unduly emphasizing some single, passing phase of the
sitter's character. A lad's moods are variable; his nature has not had
time to harden into its mould. I imagine this is what has happened,
because if the likeness is faithful, my son has changed since then."

"One does not change much in essentials," Mrs. Chudleigh answered
thoughtfully. "But what would you have different? It is a good and
very likeable face."

"There is a hint of weakness; something that suggests a too sensitive
disposition." The Colonel pointed to an officer in the old East India
Company's uniform whose expression was grim and arrogant. "A crude
piece of work, but he has the Challoner look."

"It may sound presumptuous, but I think you are scarcely doing the
family justice. One can see the salient characteristics of the male
line in this example, but they're too strongly marked. Good qualities,
such as resolution and courage, may degenerate through being developed
to exaggeration at the expense of others, and after all Captain
Challoner strikes me as a much finer type. I'm afraid you undervalue
the gift of imagination."

"These others," said Challoner, indicating the portraits generally,
"had imagination enough to do their duty, often in difficult
situations. I don't know th