the
progress I made. Fortunately for me, the Town Council approved of the
portrait when it was done. Mr. Boxsious, however, objected to them as
being much too easy to please. He did not dispute the fidelity of the
likeness, but he asserted that I had not covered the canvas with half
paint enough for my money. To this day (for he is still alive), he
describes me to all inquiring friends as "The Painter-Man who jockeyed
the Town Council."

PROLOGUE TO THE THIRD STORY.

It was a sad day for me when Mr. Lanfray, of Rockleigh Place,
discovering that his youngest daughter's health required a warm climate,
removed from his English establishment to the South of France.
Roving from place to place, as I am obliged to do, though I make many
acquaintances, I keep but few friends. The nature of my calling is, I
am quite aware, mainly answerable for this. People cannot be blamed for
forgetting a man who, on leaving their houses, never can tell them for
certain when he is likely to be in their neighborhood again.

Mr. Lanfray was one of the few exceptional persons who always remembered
me. I have proofs of his friendly interest in my welfare in the shape
of letters which I treasure with grateful care. The last of these is an
invitation to his house in the South of France. There is little chance
at present of my being able to profit by his kindness; but I like to
read his invitation from time to time, for it makes me fancy, in my
happier moments, that I may one day really be able to accept it.

My introduction to this gentleman, in my capacity of portrait-painter,
did not promise much for me in a professional point of view. I was
invited to Rockleigh--or to "The Place," as it was more frequently
called among the people of the county--to take a likeness in
water-colors, on a small scale, of the French governess who lived with
Mr. Lanfray's daughters. My first idea on hearing of this was, that the
governess was about to leave her situation, and that her pupils wished
to have a memorial of her in the shape of a portrait. Subsequent
inquiry, however, informed me that I was in error. It was the eldest of
Mr. Lanfray's daughters, who was on the point of leaving the house to
accompany her husband to India; and it was for her that the portrait
had been ordered as a home remembrance of her best and dearest friend.
Besides these particulars, I discovered that the governess, though
still called "mademoiselle," was an old lady; that Mr.