of the man's face is admirably
expressed. It is first worked in short, straight stitches, all of white,
and over that the drawing lines are worked in brown. The artist gets her
effect in the simplest possible way, and apparently with the greatest
ease.

[Illustration: 80. SIXTEENTH CENTURY ITALIAN FIGURE WORK.]

More like painting is the head in Illustration 80, worked in short
stitches of various shades, which give something of the colour as well
as the modelling of flesh. This is a triumph in its way. It goes about
as far as the needle can go, and further than, except under rare
conditions, it ought to go. But it may do that and yet be needlework.

Equally wonderful in their miniature way are the faces of the little
people on Illustration 81, about the size of your finger nail. They are
worked in solid satin-stitch, and the two layers of silk (back and
front) give a substance fairly thick but at the same time yielding, so
that when the stitches for the mouth and eyes are sewn tightly over it
they sink in, and, as it were, push up the floss between and give
relief. The nose is worked in extra satin-stitch over the other, and the
slight depression at the end of the stitch gives lines of drawing. This
trenches upon modelling, but, on such a minute scale, does not amount to
very pronounced departure from the flat. The method employed does not
lend itself to larger work.

The last word on the question as to what one may do with the needle is,
that you may do what you _can_; but it is best to seek by means of it
what it can best do, and always to make much of the texture of silk, and
of the quality of pure and lustrous colour which it gives--in short, to
work _with_ your materials.

[Illustration: 81. CHINESE FIGURES.]

THE DIRECTION OF THE STITCH.

The effect of any stitch is vastly varied, according to the use made of
it. Satin-stitch, it was shown (38), worked in twisted silk, ceases to
have any appearance of satin; and it makes all the difference whether
the stitches are long or short, close together or wide apart. More
important than all is the direction of the stitch. By that alone you can
recognise the artist in needlework.

The DIRECTION of the stitch deserves consideration from two points of
view--that of colour and that of form. First as to colour. It is not
sufficiently realised that every alteration in the direction of the
stitch means variety of tone, if not of tint. Take a feather in your
han