all without producing in
their new arrangement anything of improvement or increased effect.

The large, old-fashioned room was silent, and, with the exception of
himself, quite deserted by its usual inmates. An hour had passed--nearly
two--without any improved result. Daylight had already declined, and
twilight was fast giving way to the darkness of night. The patience
of the young man was exhausted, and he stood before his unfinished
production, absorbed in no very pleasing ruminations, one hand buried
in the folds of his long dark hair, and the other holding the piece of
charcoal which had so ill executed its office, and which he now rubbed,
without much regard to the sable streaks which it produced, with
irritable pressure upon his ample Flemish inexpressibles.

'Pshaw!' said the young man aloud, 'would that picture, devils, saint,
and all, were where they should be--in hell!'

A short, sudden laugh, uttered startlingly close to his ear, instantly
responded to the ejaculation.

The artist turned sharply round, and now for the first time became aware
that his labours had been overlooked by a stranger.

Within about a yard and a half, and rather behind him, there stood what
was, or appeared to be, the figure of an elderly man: he wore a short
cloak, and broad-brimmed hat with a conical crown, and in his hand,
which was protected with a heavy, gauntlet-shaped glove, he carried a
long ebony walking-stick, surmounted with what appeared, as it glittered
dimly in the twilight, to be a massive head of gold, and upon his
breast, through the folds of the cloak, there shone what appeared to be
the links of a rich chain of the same metal.

The room was so obscure that nothing further of the appearance of the
figure could be ascertained, and the face was altogether overshadowed
by the heavy flap of the beaver which overhung it, so that not a feature
could be discerned. A quantity of dark hair escaped from beneath this
sombre hat, a circumstance which, connected with the firm, upright
carriage of the intruder, proved that his years could not yet exceed
threescore or thereabouts.

There was an air of gravity and importance about the garb of this
person, and something indescribably odd, I might say awful, in the
perfect, stone-like movelessness of the figure, that effectually checked
the testy comment which had at once risen to the lips of the irritated
artist. He therefore, as soon as he had sufficiently recovered the
surp