that was not affected by the smash, so I have two hundred a year, which
is amply sufficient for my wants."

"It is enough, of course, to live upon in a way, Cuthbert, but so
different from what you were accustomed to."

"I don't suppose you spend two hundred a year," he said, with a smile.

"Oh, no, but a woman is so different. That is just what I have, and of
course I don't spend anything like all of it; but as I said, it is so
different with you, who have been accustomed to spend ever so much
more."

"I don't find myself in any way pinched. I can assure you my lodgings in
the Quartier Latin are not what you would call sumptuous, but they are
comfortable enough, and they do not stand me in a quarter of what I paid
for my chambers in London. I can dine sumptuously on a franc and a half.
Another franc covers my breakfast, which is generally _cafe au lait_ and
two eggs; another franc suffices for supper. So you see that my
necessaries of life, including lodgings and fuel, do not come to
anything like half my income, and I can spend the rest in riotous living
if I choose."

The girl looked at him earnestly.

"You are not growing cynical, I hope, Cuthbert?"

"I hope not. I am certainly not conscious of it. I don't look cynical,
do I?"

"No," she said, doubtfully. "I do not see any change in you, but what do
you do with yourself?"

"I paint," he said.

"Really!"

"Really and truly, I have become what you wanted me to become, a very
earnest person indeed, and some day people may even take to buying my
pictures."

"I never quite know when you are in earnest, Cuthbert; but if it is true
it is very good news. Do you mean that you are really studying?"

"I am indeed. I work at the studio of one M. Goude, and if you choose to
inquire, you will find he is perhaps the best master in Paris. I am
afraid the Prussians are going to interrupt my studies a good deal. This
has made me angry and I have enlisted--that is to say, been sworn in as
a member of the Chasseurs des Ecoles, which most of the students at
Goude's have joined."

"What! You are going to fight against the Germans!" she exclaimed,
indignantly. "You never can mean it, Cuthbert."

"I mean it, I can assure you," he said, amused at her indignation. "I
suppose you are almost Germanized, and regard their war against the
French as a just and holy cause."

"Certainly I do," she said, "though of course, I should not say so here.
I am in France and living in a