attention to what he was saying, but
broke in with the question--

"Do you think there will be much fighting?"

"It would be folly to try to persuade you that there won't," he said.
"When there are so many thousand men with guns and cannon who are
determined to get out of a place, and an equal number of men with guns
and cannon just as determined to keep them in, the chances are that, as
the Irish say, there will be wigs on the green. I do not suppose the
loss will be great in comparison to the number engaged, because
certainly a good many of the French will reconsider their determination
to get out, and will be seized with a burning desire to get back as soon
as the German shells begin to fall among them, still I do hope that they
will make a decent fight of it. I know there are some tremendously
strong batteries on the ground enclosed by the loop of the Marne, which
is where they say it is going to be, and the forts will be able to help,
so that certainly for a time we shall fight with great advantages. I do
wish that it was not so cold, fighting is bad enough in summer; but the
possibility of lying out all night on the snow wounded is one I very
strongly object to."

He continued to talk in the same light strain, until they reached his
lodgings, in order to put the girl at her ease.

"So this is your sitting-room," she said, with a laugh that had a tremor
in it, "it is just what I supposed it would be, very untidy, very dusty,
and yet in its way, comfortable. Where are the pictures?"

"Behind that screen; I keep them in strict seclusion there. Now if you
will sit down by the window I will bring the easels out."

She did as he told her. The pictures were covered when he brought them
out. He placed them where the light would fall best on them, and then
removed the cloths.

"They have not arrived at the glories of frames yet," he said, "but you
must make allowances for that. I can assure you they will look much
larger and more important when they are in their settings."

The girl sat for a minute without speaking. They were reproductions on a
larger scale and with all the improvements that his added skill and
experience could introduce of the two he had exhibited to M. Goude, when
he entered the studio.

"I had intended to do battle-pieces," he said, "and have made
innumerable sketches, but somehow or other the inspiration did not come
in that direction, so I fell back on these which are taken from smaller
on