y among them.
And suddenly he came on young Lennan himself, sitting on a stone and
dabbing away with his fingers at a lump of putty stuff. The Colonel
hesitated. Apart from obvious reasons for discomfiture, he had that
feeling towards Art common to so many of his caste. It was not work, of
course, but it was very clever--a mystery to him how anyone could do it!
On seeing him, Lennan had risen, dropping his handkerchief over what he
was modelling--but not before the Colonel had received a dim impression
of something familiar. The young man was very red--the Colonel, too, was
conscious suddenly of the heat. He held out his hand.

"Nice quiet place this," he stammered; "never seen it before. I called
at your hotel."

Now that he had his chance, he was completely at a loss. The sight of
the face emerging from that lump of 'putty stuff' had quite unnerved
him. The notion of this young man working at it up here all by himself,
just because he was away an hour or two from the original, touched him.
How on earth to say what he had come to say? It was altogether different
from what he had thought. And it suddenly flashed through him--Dolly was
right! She's always right--hang it!

"You're busy," he said; "I mustn't interrupt you."

"Not at all, sir. It was awfully good of you to look me up."

The Colonel stared. There was something about young Lennan that he had
not noticed before; a 'Don't take liberties with me!' look that made
things difficult. But still he lingered, staring wistfully at the young
man, who stood waiting with such politeness. Then a safe question shot
into his mind:

"Ah! And when do you go back to England? We're off on Tuesday."

While he spoke, a puff of wind lifted the handkerchief from the modelled
face. Would the young fellow put it back? He did not. And the Colonel
thought:

"It would have been bad form. He knew I wouldn't take advantage. Yes!
He's a gentleman!"

Lifting his hand to the salute, he said: "Well, I must be getting back.
See you at dinner perhaps?" And turning on his heel he marched away.

The remembrance of that face in the 'putty stuff' up there by the side
of the road accompanied him home. It was bad--it was serious! And the
sense that he counted for nothing in all of it grew and grew in him. He
told no one of where he had been....

When the Colonel turned with ceremony and left him, Lennan sat down
again on the flat stone, took up his 'putty stuff,' and presently
effaced tha