bar."

VANCE.--"But he was in Parliament."

LIONEL.--"Was he? I did not know."

VANCE.--"And this is senatorial fame! You never heard your schoolfellows
talk of Mr. Darrell?--they would not have known his name if you had
boasted of it?"

LIONEL.--"Certainly not."

VANCE.--"Would your schoolfellows have known the names of Wilkie, of
Landseer, of Turner, Maclise? I speak of painters."

LIONEL.--"I should think so, indeed."

VANCE (soliloquizing).--"And yet Her Serene Sublimity-ship, Lady Selina
Vipont, says to me with divine compassion, 'Not in the way of your
delightful art to know such men as Mr. Darrell!' Oh, as if I did not see
through it, too, when she said, _a propos_ of my jean cap and velveteen
jacket, 'What matters how you dress? Every one knows who you are!'
Would she have said that to the earl of Dunder, or even to Sir Gregory
Stollhead? No. I am the painter Frank Vance,--nothing more nor less; and
if I stood on my head in a check shirt and a sky-coloured apron, Lady
Selina Vipont would kindly murmur, 'Only Frank Vance the painter: what
does it signify?' Aha!--and they think to put me to use, puppets and lay
figures! it is I who put them to use! Hark ye, Lionel, you are nearer
akin to these fine folks than I knew of. Promise me one thing: you may
become of their set, by right of your famous Mr. Darrell; if ever you
hear an artist, musician, scribbler, no matter what, ridiculed as a
tuft-hunter,--seeking the great, and so forth,--before you join in the
laugh, ask some great man's son, with a pedigree that dates from the
Ark, 'Are you not a toad-eater too? Do you want political influence; do
you stand contested elections; do you curry and fawn upon greasy Sam
the butcher and grimy Tom the blacksmith for a vote? Why? useful to your
career, necessary to your ambition? Aha! is it meaner to curry and fawn
upon white-handed women and elegant coxcombs? Tut, tut! useful to
a career, necessary to ambition!'" Vance paused, out of breath. The
spoiled darling of the circles,--he, to talk such republican rubbish!
Certainly he must have taken his two guineas' worth out of those light
wines. Nothing so treacherous! they inflame the brain like fire, while
melting on the palate like ice. All inhabitants of lightwine countries
are quarrelsome and democratic.

LIONEL (astounded).--"No one, I am sure, could have meant to call you a
tuft-hunter; of course, every one knows that a great painter--"

VANCE.--"Dates from Micha