nd saw the hunchback and the
boy stepping out. Clara opened the door with an air of surprise, and
led them to the parlour where the Duchess was waiting. Years and
misfortune had added to her dignity, and Jonah felt his shop and
success and money slip away from him, leaving him the street-arab
sprung from the gutter before this aristocrat. Ray took to her at
once, and climbed into her lap, bringing her heart into her mouth as he
rubbed his feet on the famous black silk.

"I have never had the pleasure of meeting you, but I have heard of your
romantic career," she said.

"Well, I've got on, there's no denying that," said Jonah. "Some people
think it's luck, but I tell 'em it's 'ard graft."

"Exactly," said the Duchess, wondering what he meant by graft.

Jonah looked round the stuffy room. It had an indescribable air of
antiquity. Every piece of furniture was of a pattern unknown to him,
and there was a musty flavour in the air, for the Duchess, valuing
privacy more than fresh air, never opened the windows. On the wall
opposite was a large picture in oils, an English scene, with the old
rustic bridge and the mill in the distance, painted at Billabong by
Clara at an early age. The Duchess caught Jonah's eye.

"That was painted by my daughter ten years ago. Her teachers
considered she had a wonderful talent, but misfortune came, and she was
unable to follow it up," she said.

Jonah's amazement increased. It was a mere daub, but to his untrained
eye it was like the pictures in the Art Gallery, where he had spent a
couple of dull afternoons. Over the piano a framed certificate
announced that Clara Grimes had passed the junior grade of Trinity
College in 1890. And Jonah, who had an eye for business like a Jew,
who moved in an atmosphere of profit and loss, suddenly felt ill at
ease. His shop, his money, and his success must seem small things to
these women who lived in the world of art. His thoughts were brought
back to earth by a sudden crash. Ray was sitting on a chair, impatient
for the music to begin, and, as he never sat on a chair in the ordinary
fashion, he had paralysed the Duchess with a series of gymnastic feats,
twining his legs round the chair, sitting on his feet, kneeling on the
seat with his feet on the back of the chair, until at last an unlucky
move had tilted the chair backwards into a pot-stand. The jar fell
with a crash, and Ray laughed. The Duchess uttered a cry of terror.

"Yer you