he would hold it for the price of a Raphael. So I made
him set his own price, which the sly old dog thought a staggering one,
and which I found so absurdly low that I shall feel bound to remember
him handsomely at Christmas."

"You are jesting," Winifred answered, speaking lower; "but I am in
earnest. Can we not persuade you to let us pay for this picture? For
the pleasure you have given us we never could repay you."

"If it is a question of payment," said Mr. Flint, sinking his voice
still lower, "I am so deep in your debt that it would bankrupt me to
straighten our accounts. If it is a question of generosity, and I
should come to you some day and ask--"

"Did you say it was a Copley?"

This question from Philip broke in upon Mr. Flint's aside. He answered
with some asperity, "No, it was painted in England before Copley's
time. It is unsigned, but the artist, I should say, was first-rate."

After this response Mr. Flint turned his head in an instant; but the
charm was snapped. Winifred had slipped away, and the company was
breaking up. How the man would hate me if he knew that it was I who
set Brady on to ask that question!

Winifred is tired to-day, and took her breakfast in bed. I
wonder--Pshaw, what good does it do to wonder?

CHAPTER XVI

YES OR NO

"A man's homage may be delightful until he asks straight for
love, by which a woman renders homage."

The Anstices' house stood on the sunny side of Stuyvesant Square. It
belonged to the type common in the lower part of the city fifty years
ago,--a type borrowed from Beacon Street, as Miss Standish was fond of
pointing out, and never improved upon for comfort. Its red-brick front
swelled outward, not in the awkward proportions of the modern
bay-window, which suggests some uncomfortable protuberance; but with a
gracious sweep from the front door to the limits of the next property.
In front ran a balcony with a finely wrought iron balustrade, over
which clambered a wistaria vine hung with purple clusters in the
spring, and green with foliage throughout the summer.

The front door was framed by glass side-lights set in delicate oval
mouldings, and above, the colonial fan-light lined with silk fluted in
a rising-sun pattern, gave additional cheerfulness to the hall
within.

This hall was of generous proportions, and suggestive of land sold by
the foot rather than by the inch. At th