must have the painting, pa,
for Julia's sake. I _must_. It's a naughty word, isn't it, Mr. Rocjean?
but it is so expressive!'

'Unfortunately, the portrait is not for sale; I placed it on the easel
only in order not to refuse your request.'

Mr. Shodd saw the road open to an argument. He was in ecstasy; a long
argument--an argument full of churlish flings and boorish slurs, which
he fondly believed passed for polished satire and keen irony. He did not
know Rocjean; he never could know a man like him; he never could learn
the truth that confidence will overpower strength; only at last, when
through his hide and bristles entered the flashing steel, did he,
tottering backwards, open his eyes to the fact that he had found his
master--that, too, in a poor devil of an artist.

The landscapes were all thrown aside; Shodd must have that portrait. His
daughter had set her heart on having it, he said, and could a gentleman
refuse a lady any thing?

'It is on this very account I refuse to part with it,' answered Rocjean.

It instantly penetrated Shodd's head that all this refusal was only
design on the part of the artist, to obtain a higher price for the work
than he could otherwise hope for; and so, with what he believed was a
master-stroke of policy, he at once ceased importuning the artist, and
shortly departed from the studio, preceding his wife with his daughter
on his arm, leaving the consoler, and by all means his best half, to
atone, by a few kind words at parting with the artist, for her husband's
sins.

'And there,' thought Rocjean, as the door closed, 'goes 'a patron of
art'--and by no means the worst pattern. I hope he will meet with
Chapin, and buy an Orphan and an Enterprise statue; once in his house,
they will prove to every observant man the owner's taste.'

Mr. Shodd, having a point to gain, went about it with elephantine grace
and dexterity. The portrait he had seen at Rocjean's studio he was
determined to have. He invited the artist to dine with him--the artist
sent his regrets; to accompany him, 'with the ladies,' in his carriage
to Tivoli--the artist politely declined the invitation; to a
_conversazione_, the invitation from Mrs. Shodd--a previous engagement
prevented the artist's acceptance.

Mr. Shodd changed his tactics. He discovered at his banker's one day a
keen, communicative, wiry, shrewd, etc., etc., enterprising, etc., 'made
a hundred thousand dollars' sort of a little man, named Briggs, wh