rue.
Picture it, think of it, just on the brink of it. You can start next
week, to-morrow if you like!"

Ted's face turned a deep crimson, and he was silent.

"Then Audrey's promised me twenty for a copy of the Botticelli Madonna;
I began it yesterday. That'll be enough to keep you on another month, if
you want it, and bring you home again."

Still Ted said nothing. He sat down and buried his face in his hands.
Katherine knelt down and put her arm tight round his neck.

"Ted, you duffer, do you really care so much? I _am_ so glad. I didn't
know you'd take it that way."

He drew back and looked her mournfully in the face.

"Kathy, you're an angel; it's awfully good of you; but I--I can't take
it, you know."

"Why not? Too proud?"

"No--rubbish! It does seem an infernal shame not to, when you've scraped
it together with your dear little paws; but--well--don't think me a
brute--I don't know that I want to go to Paris now."

"Not to go to Paris?"

"No."

"Idiot!"

"Kathy, which Botticelli did she ask you to do for her?"

"The one you got so excited about, with St. John and the
angel--right-hand side opposite you as you go in. Come, I can see
through that trick, and I'm not going to stand any nonsense."

"It isn't nonsense."

"It is. Why, you were raving about Meissonier last year."

"Yes, last year; but----"

"Well?" Katherine rose and gazed at him with the austerity of an
inquisitor. Ted gave an uneasy laugh.

"I've been thinking that you and I between us could found a school of
our own this year. I've got the eccentricity, and you've got the cheek.
We should build ourselves an everlasting name."

"Do be serious; I shall lose my temper in another minute. Is it the
wretched money you're thinking of?"

"No, it isn't the money altogether." He got up and walked to his easel.

"Then, oh Ted, you know that Paris--Paris in May--must be simply
divine!"

"Why don't you go yourself?"

"No, no; that's not the same thing at all. I don't want to go; besides,
I can't. I haven't the time."

"Well, to tell you the truth, Kathy, no more can I. I haven't the time
either." He took up his palette and brushes and began carefully touching
up the canvas before him.

"Oh--h!" She stared at him for a minute in silence. Ted looked up
suddenly; their eyes met, and he set his face like a flint.

"Kathy," he said, slowly, "I've behaved in the most ungrateful and
abominable manner. I should like to go to Paris very m