Year: 1877

| SAD, yet on, mOSC loving IaCe, tOWar(
him, and the boy springs to his knee ant
nestles in his arms, sobbing out tn,
story Of the china dragons dissolu
ton.


But the soft rustic of silken robe i.
heard along the corridor, a stern voic.
summons the boy from the shelter o1
his dear refuge, and he evinces some in
clination to show fight" a strong arm
| lifts him down and leads him forth
while hard words shower down alike up
on father and son.


But dear me! what long way I have
wandered from the Royal Academy ant
the kind efforts of my friends to induce
me to participate in its delights.
made up my mind to go.
The conscious virtue that resulted il
this resolution, gave sense OF expan
sion to my manly breast. England ex
poets every man to do his duty" and
10! I was about to fulfill my country's
expectations!


[ went.


The day was oppressively hot.


So was the Academy
No, the Academy was hotter; and the
crowd had no consideration for me what
ever. The people trod on my toes, ano
dug their elbows into my ribs, just as il
[ had no position at all!
| saw several, indeed, many people
knew; but l hadn't it left in me to speak
to them. I could only smile feebly, and
raise my hat with my usual grace.
The pictures?


O, l don't know; I dare say they were
very good; no doubt the fellows who
painted them thought so; and, it being
their profession, they ought to have
known if anybody did.


If they hadn't thought they were good
they wouldn't have taken the trouble to
paint them, don't you see?


was sorry for the bit of gardenia in
my coat, the poor thing looked so limp
and hung it's head in such a melancholy
and Respondent fashion.


I was as sorry for it as | was for my
self. But no one can say that CRANKY
Wharf ever did anything by halves, so |
made up my mind to walk through every
room. I bought catalogue, and read
some of it, too. It's no use going to the
Academy if you can't bring an opinion
or two back with you to talk about, so
when I saw a dense, unpleasantly warm
looking crowd before picture, took a
glance over their heads at the number,
marked it in the catalogue, and made up
my mind to tell everybody that it real
ly wasn't bad at all. "


Going through all this sort of thing
was naturally very fatiguing, and | be-
gan to feel good deal exhausted.


So [ thought | would sit down.


did so.


There was only one vacant place, a
very small place, and woman on either
side looked at me as if they thought l
was a brute to take it. dare say | was;
but then don't mind being a brute now
and then.


However, it was better sitting down
than walking about, and | could see
nothing.


Yes, [ conld, though! For gap in
the crowd about me framed woman s
face, face fat and red, and altogether
hideous; and while l looked at it it
yawned and grew more hideous still.


Now, | didn't come to the Academy
to submit to that sort of thing, so
made up my mind to go.


Stay-there is a picture worth looking
at !


1t is living picture, too, and changes
as you watch it, like some exquisite dis
solving view.


My picture is not in the catalogue, so
| had better describe it.


A small face, perhaps thought too
pale (but then, | hate your red-faced
women, so that doesn't matter); nut
brown hair, with bright CLEAN OF rud-
dy gold here and there, not dressed like
a furze- bush in front and a balloon be-
hind. but shading the brow after sim
pie, modest, womanly fashion; eyes blue
not gray-soft, without being foolish,
full of intelligence, and yet just little
timid, too, as their owner glances at the
ever-moving crowd about her.


Then the sweetest mouth; no, not
like rosebud; nothing so imbecile
as that, and not one of those ever-smll-
ing, teeth displaying mouths that aggra-
vate one into "reminiscences OF Ked hid
ing Hoods $ grandmother


This was quiet, restful mouth, that
you knew could smile tenderly, or trem-
Bile sensitively under the stir OF deep
feeling


A figure slight and graceful, and yet
not compressed so as to destroy all ease
of motion, after the manner OF so many
foo-women, mean; and dress


Well, | can't hit off the dress quite so
glibly; but what | want to say is this:
it wasn't bulged out here or tied in there,
so as to mar those soft, undulating lines
that woman's drapery should always
fall into.


On the little dainty head, with its
close-bound, shining coils Of hair, was a
simple hat, or bonnet, perhaps; but be
that as it may, a something made OF
black lace, and just at one side nestled a
tiny bunch of pale pink roses. I'm sure
that not all the artists, who painted all
the pictures, could have designed more
perfectly artistic bit of coloring than
the nut brown hair, shadowy laces and
pink roses combined to form.


Then her voice, soft and low y as the
wind of the Western sea, yet clear as
a bell


Well, it's no use going on like this;
the long and the short of it was-I fol-
lowed her. Not aggressively; please
dismiss an idea so humiliating to me
from your mind at once followed her
with all that refined tact which is such
a salient point in my character; indeed,
she never noticed that did so; for this
girl, this picture " that found so fair
a one, was evidently not occupied in
wondering if people were looking at her,
but in looking at the pictures, and en-
joying them, too, or her sweet face be-
lied her sadly.


She made little marks and notes on
the margin Of her catalogue, and now
and again turned to an old gentleman
who accompanied her, with such a
bright, happy smile that I really felt.
well, began to wish that was that old
gentleman; no, that's not it; | began to
wish that I was in that old gentleman S
place.


"What a deuce of bore it is
thought I, that l cannot stay much
longer


However, there was no help for it; in
a moment of weakness | had promised
the Lady Amelia that | would dine at
her house that evening, at an appalling
ly early hour, and afterward escort her
self and friend to hear the dulcet war
bling of Patti.


The I" friend was, it appeared, a tyro