brought. Eugene told him.

"You might bring one or two here and leave them on sale. You know how
that is. Someone might take a fancy to them. You never can tell."

He explained that his commission was twenty-five per cent, and that he
would report when a sale was made. He was not interested to come and see
them. Eugene could select any two pictures he pleased. It was the same
with Henry LaRue and Pottle Freres, though the latter had never heard of
him. They asked him to show them one of his pictures. Eugene's pride was
touched the least bit by this lack of knowledge on their part, though
seeing how things were going with him he felt as though he might expect
as much and more.

Other art dealers he did not care to trust with his paintings on sale,
and he was now ashamed to start carrying them about to the magazines,
where at least one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty per
picture might be expected for them, if they were sold at all. He did not
want the magazine art world to think that he had come to this. His best
friend was Hudson Dula, and he might no longer be Art Director of
_Truth_. As a matter of fact Dula was no longer there. Then there were
Jan Jansen and several others, but they were no doubt thinking of him
now as a successful painter. It seemed as though his natural pride were
building insurmountable barriers for him. How was he to live if he could
not do this and could not paint? He decided on trying the small art
dealers with a single picture, offering to sell it outright. They might
not recognize him and so might buy it direct. He could accept, in such
cases, without much shock to his pride, anything which they might offer,
if it were not too little.

He tried this one bright morning in May, and though it was not without
result it spoiled the beautiful day for him. He took one picture, a New
York scene, and carried it to a third rate art dealer whose place he had
seen in upper Sixth Avenue, and without saying anything about himself
asked if he would like to buy it. The proprietor, a small, dark
individual of Semitic extraction, looked at him curiously and at his
picture. He could tell from a single look that Eugene was in trouble,
that he needed money and that he was anxious to sell his picture. He
thought of course that he would take anything for it and he was not sure
that he wanted the picture at that. It was not very popular in theme, a
view of a famous Sixth Avenue restaurant showin