ped that he would bring Angela home some day on a
visit. To think that she should have married such a distinguished man!

In the Witla family it was quite the same. Eugene had not been home to
see his parents since his last visit to Blackwood, but they had not been
without news. For one thing, Eugene had been neglectful, and somewhat
because of this Angela had taken it upon herself to open up a
correspondence with his mother. She wrote that of course she didn't know
her but that she was terribly fond of Eugene, that she hoped to make him
a good wife and that she hoped to make her a satisfactory
daughter-in-law. Eugene was so dilatory about writing. She would write
for him now and his mother should hear every week. She asked if she and
her husband couldn't manage to come and see them sometime. She would be
so glad and it would do Eugene so much good. She asked if she couldn't
have Myrtle's address--they had moved from Ottumwa--and if Sylvia
wouldn't write occasionally. She sent a picture of herself and Eugene, a
sketch of the studio which Eugene had made one day, a sketch of herself
looking pensively out of the window into Washington Square. Pictures
from his first show published in the newspapers, accounts of his work,
criticisms,--all reached the members of both families impartially and
they were kept well aware of how things were going.

During the time that Eugene was feeling so badly and because, if he were
going to lose his health, it might be necessary to economize greatly, it
occurred to Angela that it might be advisable for them to go home for a
visit. While her family were not rich, they had sufficient means to live
on. Eugene's mother also was constantly writing, wanting to know why
they didn't come out there for a while. She could not see why Eugene
could not paint his pictures as well in Alexandria as in New York or
Paris. Eugene listened to this willingly, for it occurred to him that
instead of going to London he might do Chicago next, and he and Angela
could stay awhile at Blackwood and another while at his own home. They
would be welcome guests.

The condition of his finances at this time was not exactly bad, but it
was not very good. Of the thirteen hundred dollars he had received for
the first three pictures sold, eleven hundred had been used on the
foreign trip. He had since used three hundred dollars of his remaining
capital of twelve hundred, but M. Charles' sale of two pictures at four
hundred eac