as three weeks upon it. It was an achievement, a
veritable _chef-d'oeuvre._ Vandover gave it to his father upon Christmas
morning, having signed his name to it with a great ornamental flourish.
The Old Gentleman was astounded, the housekeeper was called in and
exclaimed over it, raising her hands to Heaven. Vandover's father gave
him a five-dollar gold-piece, fresh from the mint, had the picture
framed in gilt and hung it up in his smoking-room over the clock.

Never for a moment did the Old Gentleman oppose Vandover's wish to
become an artist and it was he himself who first spoke about Paris to
the young man. Vandover was delighted; the Latin Quarter became his
dream. Between the two it was arranged that he should go over as soon as
he had finished his course at the High School. The Old Gentleman was to
take him across, returning only when he was well established in some
suitable studio.

At length Vandover graduated, and within three weeks of that event was
on his way to Europe with his father. He never got farther than Boston.

At the last moment the Old Gentleman wavered. Vandover was still very
young and would be entirely alone in Paris, ignorant of the language,
exposed to every temptation. Besides this, his education would stop
where it was. Somehow he could not make it seem right to him to cut the
young man adrift in this fashion. On the other hand, the Old Gentleman
had a great many old-time friends and business acquaintances in Boston
who could be trusted with a nominal supervision of his son for four
years. He had no college education himself, but in some vague way he
felt convinced that Vandover would be a better artist for a four years'
course at Harvard.

Vandover took his father's decision hardly. He had never thought of
being a college-man and nothing in that life appealed to him. He urged
upon his father the loss of time that the course would entail, but his
father met this objection by offering to pay for any artistic tuition
that would not interfere with the regular college work.

Little by little the idea of college life became more attractive to
Vandover; at the worst, it was only postponing the Paris trip, not
abandoning it. Besides this, two of his chums from the High School were
expecting to enter Harvard that fall, and he could look forward to a
very pleasant four years spent in their company.

Out at Cambridge the term was just closing. The Old Gentleman's friends
procured him tickets to