ay days together. At lunch her husband was never
present, and therefore the broken heart could be displayed at dinner
without much positive suffering. In the meantime she would implore
Conway Dalrymple to get himself married with as little delay as
possible, and she would lay upon him her positive order to restrain
himself from any word of affection addressed to herself. She, at any
rate, would be pure, high-minded, and self-sacrificing,--although
romantic and poetic also, as was her nature.

The picture was progressing, and so also, as it had come about, was
the love-affair between the artist and his model. Conway Dalrymple
had begun to think that he might, after all, do worse than make Clara
Van Siever his wife. Clara Van Siever was handsome, and undoubtedly
clever, and Clara Van Siever's mother was certainly rich. And, in
addition to this, the young lady herself began to like the man into
whose society she was thrown. The affair seemed to flourish, and Mrs
Dobbs Broughton should have been delighted. She told Clara, with
a very serious air, that she was delighted, bidding Clara, at the
same time, to be very cautious, as men were so fickle, and as Conway
Dalrymple, though the best fellow in the world, was not, perhaps,
altogether free from that common vice of men. Indeed, it might have
been surmised, from a word or two which Mrs. Broughton allowed to
escape, that she considered poor Conway to be more than ordinarily
afflicted in that way. Miss Van Siever at first only pouted, and said
that there was nothing in it. "There is something in it, my dear,
certainly," said Mrs. Dobbs Broughton; "and there can be no earthly
reason why there should not be a great deal in it." "There is nothing
in it," said Miss Van Siever, impetuously; "and if you will continue
to speak of Mr. Dalrymple in that way, I must give up the picture."
"As for that," said Mrs. Broughton, "I conceive that we are both of us
bound to the young man now, seeing that he has given so much time to
the work." "I am not bound to him at all," said Miss Van Siever.

Mrs. Broughton also told Conway Dalrymple that she was delighted,--oh,
so much delighted! He had obtained permission to come in one morning
before the time of sitting, so that he might work at his canvas
independently of his model. As was his custom, he made his own way
upstairs and commenced his work alone,--having been expressly told by
Mrs. Broughton that she would not come to him till she brought