ring among a thousand; it's worse even than the postman's; it's like an
alarm of fire!"

Here Valentine drums gently with his mahl-stick on the floor. Madonna
looks towards him directly; he waves his hand round and round rapidly
above his head. This is the sign which means "Zack." The girl smiles
brightly, and blushes as she sees it. Zack is apparently one of her
special favorites.

While the young gentleman is being admitted at the garden gate, there is
a leisure moment to explain how he became acquainted with Mr. Blyth.

Valentine's father, and Mrs. Thorpe's father (the identical Mr.
Goodworth who figures at the beginning of this narrative as one of
the actors in the Sunday Drama at Baregrove Square), had been intimate
associates of the drowsy-story-telling and copious-port-drinking
old school. The friendly intercourse between these gentlemen spread,
naturally enough, to the sons and daughters who formed their respective
families. From the time of Mr. Thorpe's marriage to Miss Goodworth,
however, the connection between the junior Goodworths and Blyths began
to grow less intimate--so far, at least, as the new bride and Valentine
were concerned. The rigid modern Puritan of Baregrove Square, and the
eccentric votary of the Fine Arts, mutually disapproved of each
other from the very first. Visits of ceremony were exchanged at long
intervals; but even these were discontinued on Madonna's arrival under
Valentine's roof: Mr. Thorpe being one of the first of the charitable
friends of the family who suspected her to be the painter's natural
child. An almost complete separation accordingly ensued for some years,
until Zack grew up to boy's estate, and was taken to see Valentine,
one day in holiday time, by his grandfather. He and the painter became
friends directly. Mr. Blyth liked boys, and boys of all degrees
liked him. From this time, Zack frequented Valentine's house at every
opportunity, and never neglected his artist-friend in after years. At
the date of this story, one of the many points in his son's conduct of
which Mr. Thorpe disapproved on the highest moral grounds, was the firm
determination the lad showed to keep up his intimacy with Mr. Blyth.

We may now get back to the ring at the bell.

Zack's approach to the painting-room was heralded by a scuffling of
feet, a loud noise of talking, and a great deal of suspicious giggling
on the part of the housemaid, who had let him in. Suddenly these sounds
ceased--the d