But, mind you, I'm not
prepared to say that Oswyn wouldn't have made something better out
of it."

"Yes," said Rainham slowly, with the chill of the old misgiving
about his heart, as he remembered the stormy encounter at the dock,
with the haunting shadow of doubt in his mind, laboriously dismissed
as an offence against his loyalty. "It seems to me that Oswyn has
more real genius in his little finger than Dick has in his whole
body; I am sure of it. It was a pity that they should both have
chosen the same subject, especially as their ideas, as to colour and
treatment and so on, are so much the same. But, of course, Dick had
a perfect right to finish and exhibit his picture, even if he knew
that Oswyn was thinking of the same thing."

McAllister assented hastily.

"No doubt, no doubt; though Oswyn was just wild about it--you know
his uncivilized ways--and I must admit I was a bit astonished
myself, at first, when I saw the picture at Burlington House with
Lightmark's signature to it. But then I didn't know anything of the
rights of the case. He's a queer, cantankerous devil, and he's
always being wronged, according to his own accounts, and not only by
the critics. No one pays much attention to what he says nowadays.
It's just that absinthe and the cigarettes that are the ruin of him,
day and night. Poor devil! why can't he stick to whisky and a pipe,
like a decent Christian!"

"His queerness is all on the surface," said Rainham gravely. "You
have to dig pretty deep to find out what he's really worth."

Just then Eve hurried towards them through the trees, looking about
her with an air of hesitation, carrying the train of her pale-gray
brocade dress over one bare, girlish arm.

"Is that you, Mr. McAllister?" she asked, recognising first in the
darkness the gaunt figure and tawny beard of the Scotchman. "Oh, and
Mr. Rainham too! This is really very wrong of you, monopolizing each
other in this way. And don't you know," she added laughingly, "that
this corner is especially dedicated to flirtations? You must really
come and do your duty. Mr. McAllister, won't you take Miss Menzies
in to have some supper? You know her, I think--a compatriot, isn't
she? You will find her close to the tent. And you," she pursued,
turning to Rainham, "you must take some one in, you know. Will you
come this way, please, and I will introduce you to somebody. I am so
sorry I was not at home when you called the other day," she said
conventi