looked puzzled.

"Don't," said Mr. Ogden. "I tried once, when I first began. But it's
much easier to notice what women say, and answer 'yes' and 'no' at the
right points."

Peter looked puzzled.

"Nonsense, Lispenard," said Miss De Voe. "He's really one of the best
connoisseurs I know, Mr. Stirling."

"There," said Lispenard. "You see. Only agree with people, and they
think you know everything."

"I suppose you have seen the pictures, and so won't care to go round
with us?" inquired Miss De Voe.

"I've looked at them, but I should like to go over again with you," said
Peter. Then he added, "if I shan't be in the way."

"Not a bit," said Lispenard heartily. "My cousin always wants a
listener. It will be a charity to her tongue and my ears." Miss De Voe
merely gave him a very pleasant smile. "I wonder why he wouldn't buy a
ticket?" she thought.

Peter was rather astonished at the way they looked at the pictures. They
would pass by a dozen without giving them a second glance, and then stop
at one, and chat about it for ten minutes. He found that Miss De Voe had
not exaggerated her cousin's art knowledge. He talked familiarly and
brilliantly, though making constant fun of his own opinions, and often
jeering at the faults of the picture. Miss De Voe also talked well, so
Peter really did supply the ears for the party. He was very much pleased
when they both praised a certain picture.

"I liked that," he told them, making the first remark (not a question)
which he had yet made. "It seemed to me the best here."

"Unquestionably," said Lispenard. "There is poetry and feeling in it."

Miss De Voe said: "That is not the one I should have thought of your
liking."

"That's womanly," said Lispenard, "they are always deciding what a man
should like."

"No," denied Miss De Voe. "But I should think with your liking for
children, that you would have preferred that piece of Brown's, rather
than this sad, desolate sand-dune."

"I cannot say why I like it, except, that I feel as if it had something
to do with my own mood at times."

"Are you very lonely?" asked Miss De Voe, in a voice too low for
Lispenard to hear.

"Sometimes," said Peter, simply.

"I wish," said Miss De Voe, still speaking low, "that the next time you
feel so you would come and see me."

"I will," said Peter.

When they parted at the door, Peter thanked Lispenard: "I've really
learned a good deal, thanks to Miss De Voe and you. I've seen the
pi