pers in his hand. He also flitted
silently from one room to another, peering round corners and listening
at doors in the hope of seeing or hearing something which would give
him an excuse for making an example of someone. Disappointed in this,
he presently crawled upstairs to the room where Owen was working and,
handing to him the roll of papers he had been carrying, said:

'Mr Sweater had decided to 'ave this work done, so you can start on it
as soon as you like.'

It is impossible to describe, without appearing to exaggerate, the
emotions experienced by Owen as he heard this announcement. For one
thing it meant that the work at this house would last longer than it
would otherwise have done; and it also meant that he would be paid for
the extra time he had spent on the drawings, besides having his wages
increased--for he was always paid an extra penny an hour when engaged
on special work, such as graining or sign-writing or work of the
present kind. But these considerations did not occur to him at the
moment at all, for to him it meant much more. Since his first
conversation on the subject with Rushton he had though of little else
than this work.

In a sense he had been DOING it ever since. He had thought and planned
and altered the details of the work repeatedly. The colours for the
different parts had been selected and rejected and re-selected over and
over again. A keen desire to do the work had grown within him, but he
had scarcely allowed himself to hope that it would be done at all. His
face flushed slightly as he took the drawings from Hunter.

'You can make a start on it tomorrow morning,' continued that
gentleman. 'I'll tell Crass to send someone else up 'ere to finish
this room.'

'I shan't be able to commence tomorrow, because the ceiling and walls
will have to be painted first.'

'Yes: I know. You and Easton can do that. One coat tomorrow, another
on Friday and the third on Saturday--that is, unless you can make it do
with two coats. Even if it has to be the three, you will be able to go
on with your decoratin' on Monday.'

'I won't be able to start on Monday, because I shall have to make some
working drawings first.'

'Workin' drorins!' ejaculated Misery with a puzzled expression. 'Wot
workin' drorins? You've got them, ain't yer?' pointing to the roll of
papers.

'Yes: but as the same ornaments are repeated several times, I shall
have to make a number of full-sized drawings, with