w and saw, began to doubt, and now I know _why_ I doubted."

Lord Theign had during this speech kept his eyes on the ground; but he
raised them to Mr. Crimble's almost palpitating presence for the remark:
"I'm bound to say that I hope you've some very good grounds!"

"I've three or four, Lord Theign; they seem to me of the best--as yet.
They made me wonder and wonder--and then light splendidly broke."

His lordship didn't stint his attention. "Reflected, you mean, from
_other_ Mantovanos--that I don't know?"

"I mean from those I know myself," said Hugh; "and I mean from fine
analogies with one in particular."

"Analogies that in all these years, these centuries, have so remarkably
not been noticed?"

"Well," Hugh competently explained, "they're a sort of thing the very
sense of, the value and meaning of, are a highly modern--in fact a quite
recent growth."

Lord John at this professed with cordiality that he at least quite
understood. "Oh, we know a lot more about our pictures and things than
ever our ancestors did!"

"Well, I guess it's enough for _me_," Mr. Bender contributed, "that your
ancestors knew enough to get 'em!"

"Ah, that doesn't go so far," cried Hugh, "unless we ourselves know
enough to keep 'em!"

The words appeared to quicken in a manner Lord Theign's view of the
speaker. "Were _your_ ancestors, Mr. Crimble, great collectors?"

Arrested, it might be, in his general assurance, Hugh wondered and
smiled. "Mine--collectors? Oh, I'm afraid I haven't any--to speak of.
Only it has seemed to me for a long time," he added, "that on that head
we should all feel together."

Lord Theign looked for a moment as if these were rather large
presumptions; then he put them in their place a little curtly. "It's one
thing to keep our possessions for ourselves--it's another to keep them
for other people."

"Well," Hugh good-humouredly returned, "I'm perhaps not so absolutely
sure of myself, if you press me, as that I sha'n't be glad of a higher
and wiser opinion--I mean than my own. It would be awfully interesting,
if you'll allow me to say so, to have the judgment of one or two of the
great men."

"You're not yourself, Mr. Crimble, one of the great men?" his host asked
with tempered irony.

"Well, I guess he's going to be, anyhow," Mr. Bender cordially struck
in; "and this remarkable exhibition of intelligence may just let him
loose on the world, mayn't it?"

"Thank you, Mr. Bender!"--and Hugh obviousl