d satin
ottoman with gilt lions' heads, her eyes fixed upon the great
half-darkened window, her hands--which were very slender and white,
but not small--carelessly folded on her lap. She wore a common
dark-coloured cotton gown, with an old tulle frill crammed in at her
throat, but had neither ear-rings, rings, nor ornaments of any kind.

"Beside her on a low stool, sat a little girl of about seven, slowly
and reluctantly knitting away at a coarse blue stocking.

"At length I found it necessary to make some remark.

"'I am disturbing you, Mynheer,' said I, though for a quarter of an
hour past I had seen that he did not permit himself to be disturbed by
me. We painters used to call him Mynheer in jest.

"'Send me away at once,' I went on, 'if I am in any way inconvenient
either to you or the young lady. Though indeed when one has hit upon
such a discovery, it is but a man's Christian duty to share it with his
neighbours.'

"Van Kuylen muttered a Dutch word or two between his teeth; the girl
looked gloomy as though I had said something to offend her; the child
with the stocking yawned heartily, and dropped a dozen stitches.

"'My good friend,' I at length resumed in Dutch, in which he had taught
me to jabber a little, 'tell me honestly whether you wish me at the
Devil, or whether I may remain a little longer to stare at this really
quite unreasonably exquisite face that your lucky star has led you
to--Heaven knows how--and which, to speak plainly, is infinitely too
good for you. Such a subject--begging your pardon--is not appropriate
for your foot-square canvas, and your finickin genre-brush. Life-size,
indeed, and faithfully and humbly copied--as it pleased God to make
her--in the manner of the old Venetians, that would be a different
thing. But I know you too well, with your worthy visage; you would want
to be peeping down upon her from some window-corner or other, or giving
scope to some of your antic humour, and that would be an insult to such
a paragon of Grecian perfection, with whose face that wretched cotton
gown is no more in keeping than a modern crinoline with the Juno
Ludovisi.'

"I had no scruple in thus crudely speaking my mind to him; he was
rather fond of pungent personal remarks, and did not remain long in my
debt.

"He rose to get something that he wanted for his work, and answered
without removing his empty pipe from his lips: 'I can well imagine your
mouth watering after such an exceptional mo