d to be daubs, while others that had been considered among
the studios as certain of acceptance, had been rejected. Two or three of
Cuthbert's friends were starting at once for Cornwall to enjoy a rest
after three months' steady work and to lay in a stock of fresh sketches
for pictures for the following year.

"I will go with you," Cuthbert said when they informed him of their
intention, "it is early yet, but it is warm enough even for loafing on
the rocks, and I hate London when it's full. I will go for a fortnight
anyhow," and so with Wilson and two younger men, he started for Newquay,
on the north of Cornwall. Once established there the party met only at
meals.

"We don't want to be doing the same bits," Wilson said, "and we shall
see plenty of each other of an evening." Cuthbert was delighted with the
place, and with his usual enthusiasm speedily fixed upon a subject, and
setting up his easel and camp-stool began work on the morning after his
arrival. He had been engaged but a few hours when two young ladies came
along. They stopped close to him, and Cuthbert, who hated being
overlooked when at work, was on the point of growling an anathema under
his fair drooping mustache, when one of the girls came close and said
quietly--

"How are you, Mr. Hartington? Who would have thought of meeting you
here?"

He did not recognize her for a moment and then exclaimed--

"Why, it is Mary Brander. I beg your pardon," he went on, taking off his
soft, broad-brimmed hat, "I ought to have said Miss Brander, but having
known you so long as Mary Brander, the name slipped out. It must have
been three years since we met, and you have shot up from a girl into a
full-grown young lady. Are your father and mother here?"

"No, I came down last week to stay with my friend, Miss Treadwyn, who
was at Girton with me. Anna, this is Mr. Cuthbert Hartington. Mr.
Hartington's place is near Abchester, and he is one of my father's
clients."

Miss Treadwyn bowed and Cuthbert took off his hat.

"We have known each other ever since we were children," Mary went on,
"that is to say ever since I was a child, for he was a big boy then; he
often used to come into our house, while Mr. Hartington was going into
business matters with my father, and generally amused himself by teasing
me. He used to treat me as if I was a small sort of monkey, and
generally ended by putting me in a passion; of course that was in the
early days."

"Before you came to y