od. I
should think your apartment would suit me exactly; pray show it to me."

"With the greatest pleasure," said the elderly man. "The Muse need not
bring a fishing-rod! we have all sorts of tackle at your service, and a
boat too, if you care for that. The stream hereabouts is so shallow and
narrow that a boat is of little use till you get farther down."

"I don't want to get farther down; but should I want to get to the
opposite bank, without wading across, would the boat take me or is there
a bridge?"

"The boat can take you. It is a flat-bottomed punt, and there is a
bridge too for foot-passengers, just opposite my house; and between
this and Moleswich, where the stream widens, there is a ferry. The stone
bridge for traffic is at the farther end of the town."

"Good. Let us go at once to your house."

The two men walked on.

"By the by," said Kenelm, as they walked, "do you know much of the
family that inhabit the pretty cottage on the opposite side, which we
have just left behind?"

"Mrs. Cameron's. Yes, of course, a very good lady; and Mr. Melville, the
painter. I am sure I ought to know, for he has often lodged with me
when he came to visit Mrs. Cameron. He recommends my apartment to his
friends, and they are my best lodgers. I like painters, sir, though I
don't know much about paintings. They are pleasant gentlemen, and easily
contented with my humble roof and fare."

"You are quite right. I don't know much about paintings myself; but I am
inclined to believe that painters, judging not from what I have seen of
them, for I have not a single acquaintance among them personally, but
from what I have read of their lives, are, as a general rule, not only
pleasant but noble gentlemen. They form within themselves desires to
beautify or exalt commonplace things, and they can only accomplish their
desires by a constant study of what is beautiful and what is exalted.
A man constantly so engaged ought to be a very noble gentleman, even
though he may be the son of a shoeblack. And living in a higher world
than we do, I can conceive that he is, as you say, very well contented
with humble roof and fare in the world we inhabit."

"Exactly, sir; I see--I see now, though you put it in a way that never
struck me before."

"And yet," said Kenelm, looking benignly at the speaker, "you seem to
me a well-educated and intelligent man; reflective on things in general,
without being unmindful of your interests in particular,