unfriendly glance at the picture.

"Well, I had every excuse, after living with that infernal thing for a
week!"

Archie looked at him, astonished.

"I say, old thing, I don't know if I have got your meaning exactly, but
you somehow give me the impression that you don't like that jolly old
work of Art."

"Like it!" cried Mr. Brewster. "It's nearly driven me mad! Every time
it caught my eye, it gave me a pain in the neck. To-night I felt as if I
couldn't stand it any longer. I didn't want to hurt Lucille's feelings,
by telling her, so I made up my mind I would cut the damned thing out of
its frame and tell her it had been stolen."

"What an extraordinary thing! Why, that's exactly what old Wheeler did."

"Who is old Wheeler?"

"Artist chappie. Pal of mine. His fiancee painted the thing, and, when
I lifted it off him, he told her it had been stolen. HE didn't seem
frightfully keen on it, either."

"Your friend Wheeler has evidently good taste."

Archie was thinking.

"Well, all this rather gets past me," he said. "Personally, I've always
admired the thing. Dashed ripe bit of work, I've always considered.
Still, of course, if you feel that way--"

"You may take it from me that I do!"

"Well, then, in that case--You know what a clumsy devil I am--You can
tell Lucille it was all my fault--"

The Wigmore Venus smiled up at Archie--it seemed to Archie with a
pathetic, pleading smile. For a moment he was conscious of a feeling of
guilt; then, closing his eyes and hardening his heart, he sprang lightly
in the air and descended with both feet on the picture. There was a
sound of rending canvas, and the Venus ceased to smile.

"Golly!" said Archie, regarding the wreckage remorsefully.

Mr. Brewster did not share his remorse. For the second time that night
he gripped him by the hand.

"My boy!" he quavered. He stared at Archie as if he were seeing him with
new eyes. "My dear boy, you were through the war, were you not?"

"Eh? Oh yes! Right through the jolly old war."

"What was your rank?"

"Oh, second lieutenant."

"You ought to have been a general!" Mr. Brewster clasped his hand once
more in a vigorous embrace. "I only hope," he added "that your son will
be like you!"

There are certain compliments, or compliments coming from certain
sources, before which modesty reels, stunned. Archie's did.

He swallowed convulsively. He had never thought to hear these words from
Daniel Brewster.

"How would it be