to ceremony. "I've but a moment, to my regret, to give you, Mr.
Bender, and if you've been unavoidably detained, as you great bustling
people are so apt to be, it will perhaps still be soon enough for
your comfort to hear from me that I've just given order to close our
exhibition. From the present hour on, sir"--he put it with the firmness
required to settle the futility of an appeal.

Mr. Bender's large surprise lost itself, however, promptly enough,
in Mr. Bender's larger ease. "Why, do you really mean it, Lord
Theign?--removing already from view a work that gives innocent
gratification to thousands?"

"Well," said his lordship curtly, "if thousands have seen it I've done
what I wanted, and if they've been gratified I'm content--and invite
_you_ to be."

Mr. Bender showed more keenness for this richer implication. "In other
words it's I who may remove the picture?"

"Well--if you'll take it on my estimate."

"But what, Lord Theign, all this time," Mr. Bender almost pathetically
pleaded, "_is_ your estimate?"

The parting guest had another pause, which prolonged itself, after
he had reached the door, in a deep solicitation of their hostess's
conscious eyes. This brief passage apparently inspired his answer. "Lady
Sandgate will tell you." The door closed behind him.

The charming woman smiled then at her other friend, whose comprehensive
presence appeared now to demand of her some account of these strange
proceedings. "He means that your own valuation is much too shockingly
high."

"But how can I know _how_ much unless I find out what he'll take?"
The great collector's spirit had, in spite of its volume, clearly not
reached its limit of expansion. "Is he crazily waiting for the thing to
be proved _not_ what Mr. Crimble claims?"

"No, he's waiting for nothing--since he holds that claim demolished by
Pappendick's tremendous negative, which you wrote to tell him of."

Vast, undeveloped and suddenly grave, Mr. Bender's countenance showed
like a barren tract under a black cloud. "I wrote to _report_, fair and
square, on Pap-pendick, but to tell him I'd take the picture just the
same, negative and all."

"Ah, but take it in that way not for what it is but for what it isn't."

"We know nothing about what it 'isn't,'" said Mr. Bender, "after all
that has happened--we've only learned a little better every day what it
is."

"You mean," his companion asked, "the biggest bone of artistic
contention----?"

"Yes,"