e it to Mr. Rossiter to take
down to Oxford for some lectures he's been agiving there."

"Did he never paint out his studies, then?" asked MacMaster with
perplexity. "Here are two completed ones for this picture. Why did he
keep them?"

"I don't know as I could say as to that, sir," replied James, smiling
indulgently, "but that was 'is way. That is to say, 'e pynted out very
frequent, but 'e always made two studies to stand; one in watercolors
and one in oils, before 'e went at the final picture--to say nothink
of all the pose studies 'e made in pencil before he begun on the
composition proper at all. He was that particular. You see, 'e wasn't so
keen for the final effect as for the proper pyntin' of 'is pictures. 'E
used to say they ought to be well made, the same as any other h'article
of trade. I can lay my 'and on the pose studies for you, sir." He
rummaged in one of the portfolios and produced half a dozen drawings,
"These three," he continued, "was discarded; these two was the pose he
finally accepted; this one without alteration, as it were.

"That's in Paris, as I remember," James continued reflectively. "It went
with the _Saint Cecilia_ into the Baron H---'s collection. Could you
tell me, sir, 'as 'e it still? I don't like to lose account of them, but
some 'as changed 'ands since Sir 'Ugh's death."

"H---'s collection is still intact, I believe," replied MacMaster. "You
were with Treffinger long?"

"From my boyhood, sir," replied James with gravity. "I was a stable boy
when 'e took me."

"You were his man, then?"

"That's it, sir. Nobody else ever done anything around the studio.
I always mixed 'is colors and 'e taught me to do a share of the
varnishin'; 'e said as 'ow there wasn't a 'ouse in England as could
do it proper. You ayn't looked at the _Marriage_ yet, sir?" he asked
abruptly, glancing doubtfully at MacMaster, and indicating with his
thumb the picture under the north light.

"Not very closely. I prefer to begin with something simpler; that's
rather appalling, at first glance," replied MacMaster.

"Well may you say that, sir," said James warmly. "That one regular
killed Sir 'Ugh; it regular broke 'im up, and nothink will ever convince
me as 'ow it didn't bring on 'is second stroke."

When MacMaster walked back to High Street to take his bus his mind was
divided between two exultant convictions. He felt that he had not
only found Treffinger's greatest picture, but that, in James, he had
dis