y at the end of his task, an oblong tome which did
interest him: "Cazenove's Architectural Views of European Capitals, with
descriptive letterpress." It had an old-fashioned look, and was
probably some relic of his father's predecessor in the establishment.
Another example of the lack of order which prevailed!

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THREE.

He took the volume to the retreat of the desk, and there turned over its
pages of coloured illustrations. At first his interest in them, and in
the letterpress, was less instinctive than deliberate. He said to
himself: "Now, if there is anything in me, I ought really to be
interested in this, and I must be interested in it." And he was. He
glanced carelessly at the clock, which was hung above the shelves of
exercise-books and notebooks, exactly opposite the door. A quarter past
four. The afternoon was quietly passing, and he had not found it too
tedious. In the background of the task which (he considered) he had
accomplished with extraordinary efficiency, his senses noted faintly the
continual trickle of customers, all of whom were infallibly drawn to
Miss Ingamells's counter by her mere watchful and receptive appearance.
He had heard phrases and ends of phrases, such as: "No, we haven't
anything smaller," "A camel-hair brush," "Gum but not glue," "Very
sorry, sir. I'll speak firmly to the paper boy," and the sound of coins
dragged along the counter, the sound of the testing of half a sovereign,
the opening and shutting of the till-drawer; and occasionally Miss
Ingamells exclaiming to herself upon the stupidity of customers after a
customer had gone; and once Miss Ingamells crossing angrily to fix the
door ajar which some heedless customer had closed: "Did they suppose
that people didn't want air like other people?" And now it was a
quarter past four. Undoubtedly he had a peculiar, and pleasant, feeling
of importance. In another half-minute he glanced at the clock again,
and it was a quarter to five.

What hypnotism attracted him towards the artists' materials cabinet
which stood magnificent, complicated, and complete in the middle of the
shop, like a monument? His father, after one infantile disastrous raid,
had absolutely forbidden any visitation of that cabinet, with its glass
case of assorted paints, crayons, brushes and pencils, and its
innumerable long drawers full of paper and cards and wondrous perfectly
equ