as he was handed out of the carriage on his arrival at the Hotel
Richelieu, his golden curls escaping from beneath his Phrygian cap of
liberty, and cascading over his shoulders. We were in the depth of
winter, and his sturdy little figure was warmly clad in the ample folds
of the toboggan costume--a sort of ulster made of a deep-toned red
flannel; collar and cuffs of the same material, but dark blue, and the
cap to match. His mother led him upstairs--or I should more correctly
say, speaking of this typical American child, was led upstairs by him.
After forty-eight hours' travelling, that lady stepped out of the train
much as if it were one of those boxes marked "Worth--Paris." She was a
lovely woman, as I soon learnt; lovely not only in outward appearance,
but in that moral and intellectual sense which the American language
connects with the word.

My stay in Chicago was limited, and I had written to say that I could
only undertake to paint one picture--that to be a head of the boy. When
we met, however, I at once felt I _must_ paint him full-length,
life-size, toboggan costume, cap, snowscape, and all; and as for the
mother, to be sure, as she wished it, we must find time for a
head-portrait of her too. There was that in her that seemed to call for
a picture from the artist's brush, and so I soon enthusiastically set to
work, painting on the two canvases alternately.

But it was not long ere troubles came thick and fast, growing out of
Robert's determination not to sit for his portrait if he could in any
way help it, and further, on no account to leave the studio when I was
painting his mother. I tried various subtle devices to make work
possible. With a piece of white chalk I designed a most scientific
frontier, separating his territory from mine, and that was capital fun
as long as I joined in the game and we repulsed one another's attacks,
but it fell flat as soon as I returned to the easel. I fed him from an
unlimited supply of "candy," and succeeded after a while in bringing
about indisposition of a marked character; but he speedily recovered,
his animal spirits rising with returning vitality. I sometimes flatter
myself that I possess a faculty of inducing docility in my sitters. More
especially in the treatment of children I pride myself on a series of
minor accomplishments, mainly connected with a free transcription of
Nature's noises, pleasant and unpleasant, such as the animal kingdom
furnishes to the observ