g stories are told by artists about their sitters, but as a
rule the stories are told with this absurd restriction: "but you mustn't
publish that"--which, of course, takes the point absolutely away.

[Illustration: [_By Annie G. Fletcher._

"SWEET GENEVIEVE."]

Mr. Alyn Williams, the President of the Society of Miniature Painters,
to whom the Society owes its origin and prosperity, tells a good story
which he does not claim to be original. He tells it rather to show the
difficulties which an artist is sometimes made to overcome by his
client.

A man who distinctly came from the provinces once went to an artist who
had painted a celebrated picture of David, and said that he wanted him
to paint a picture of his father.

The artist consented, and suggested that it would be necessary for the
subject to come to his studio. That, however, the son declared to be
impossible, and at last the fact came out that he was dead.

"Have you a photograph?" asked the artist.

No; a photograph had never been taken.

"Then I cannot paint him," declared the artist.

"But you painted David," retorted the man, "and he has been dead much
longer than my father!"

This was irresistible, and so the artist consented to do his best.

When the fancy picture of the father was finished, the faithful son came
to see it, and liked it very much.

"It is very good," he said. "But," he added, after a little reflection,
"how he has changed!"

[Illustration: [_By Mabel E. Hankin._

A PORTRAIT.]

[Illustration: _By A. R. Merrylees._]

A BONNIE BAIRN.]

[Illustration: [_By Alyn Williams._

A "GAINSBOROUGH" PORTRAIT.]

Miss Merrylees, whose miniatures, seven in number, make a fine show at
the Academy, once had to paint a miniature of a clergyman; but the only
way of getting his right expression was to make him recite long poems
and dramatic scenes from Shakespeare. While he was doing this, Miss
Merrylees "went on painting madly."

Another time she was painting a little boy, who was sitting very still
and silent.

Suddenly he convulsed his painter by propounding this tremendous query:
"Do you like your groom to sit _so_, or _so_?" And he indicated two
varieties of the akimbo manner.

A charming portrait of a pretty child indicates Miss Merrylees' style of
work. This was exhibited both in the Royal Academy and the Paris Salon.

Holbein, who was a great miniaturist, had a very summary method of
dealing with people who troubled him wh