ve taken a deep and engrossing look at it again, and I
see how to resolve all its difficulties, I daresay, by the spring. I
know this letter will make you happy, so, for Heaven's sake, don't
give another thought to yesterday afternoon. I have been a great
trial to you for so long, and I want to recognise your goodness and
kindness in the only way I can, and that is by--succeeding. My heart
is in the work, and your belief in me shall find justification.

"I am keeping your money; it will remove my last anxiety and enable
me to work at ease. I want you to come here as soon as I have made
some headway with the new work, as I should like you to carry away
the impression on your next visit of something real that has been
accomplished.

"Your loving brother,

"WALTER."

VIII

The first sitting was eminently satisfactory. Miss Robinson and her
mother were punctual to the very stroke of the clock, the new canvas
stood waiting on the smaller easel, and everything was ready for an
immediate start. Wyndham had been able to obtain on hire a most lovely
Empire chair, with swans' heads for armrests, and exquisitely mounted
with chiselled garlands. It did not take him long to find his
arrangement, and he saw now how shrewd had been his idea of the Empire
chair. It was remarkable how Miss Robinson and the chair composed
together: it gave her distinction, heightened her personality, and the
profile at once seemed to take precisely the quality which he considered
essential to his scheme. Her right arm rested lightly along the swan's
neck, and the subtle cat's-eye, with its border of tiny pearls, showed
deliciously against the long hand and fingers that emerged from the lace
lying loosely about the wrist. Her left hand lay on her lap, and here
the ancient green scarab and the aquamarine made important decorative
spots amid so great a mass of lace-work. The nankin vase had been sent
to the studio during the morning, so that Wyndham was practically able
to build up his picture before him. Indeed, so interesting was the
result that it promised to lessen by half the labour of creation.

And, now that he had taken the measure of the Robinsons, he was easily
master of the situation. They were not merely in his hands as clients
who were availing themselves of his skill; but surrendered as to one
naturally high above them. In posing Miss Robinson, he had once or twice
given utterance to his satisfaction in so s