there was productive of pleasure to neither his father nor himself. They
had not a single taste in common, and though Cuthbert made an effort to
take an interest in field sports and farming, it was not long before his
father himself told him that as it was evident the life was altogether
distasteful to him, and his tastes lay in another direction, he was
perfectly ready to make him an allowance that would enable him either to
travel or to live in chambers in London.

"I am sorry, of course, lad," he said, "that you could not make yourself
happy with me here, but I don't blame you, for it is after all a matter
of natural disposition. Of course you will come down here sometimes, and
at any rate I shall be happier in knowing that you are living your own
life and enjoying yourself in your own way, than I should be in seeing
you trying in vain to take to pursuits from which you would derive no
pleasure whatever."

"I am awfully sorry, father," Cuthbert had said. "I heartily wish it had
been otherwise, but I own that I would rather live in London on an
almost starvation income than settle down here. I have really tried hard
to get to like things that you do. I feel it would have been better if I
had always stayed here and had a tutor; then, no doubt, I should have
taken to field sports and so on. However, it is no use regretting that
now, and I am very thankful for your offer."

Accordingly he had gone up to London, taken chambers in Gray's Inn,
where two or three of his college friends were established, and joined a
Bohemian Club, where he made the acquaintance of several artists, and
soon became a member of their set. He had talked vaguely of taking up
art as a profession, but nothing ever came of it. There was an easel or
two in his rooms and any number of unfinished paintings; but he was
fastidious over his own work and unable from want of knowledge of
technique to carry out his ideas, and the canvases were one after
another thrown aside in disgust. His friends upbraided him bitterly with
his want of application, not altogether without effect; he took their
remonstrances in perfect good temper, but without making the slightest
effort to improve. He generally accompanied some of them on their
sketching expeditions to Normandy, Brittany, Spain, or Algiers, and his
portfolios were the subject of mingled admiration and anger among his
artist friends in St. John's Wood; admiration at the vigor and talent
that his sketches