nd in the stage."

"I didn't see her in the train," said Hawker.

"Oh, then you saw her in the stage. Ha-ha, you old thief! I sat up here,
and you sat down there and lied." He jumped from his perch and
belaboured Hawker's shoulders.

"Stop that!" said the painter.

"Oh, you old thief, you lied to me! You lied---- Hold on--bless my life,
here she comes now!"

CHAPTER IV.

One day Hollanden said: "There are forty-two people at Hemlock Inn, I
think. Fifteen are middle-aged ladies of the most aggressive
respectability. They have come here for no discernible purpose save to
get where they can see people and be displeased at them. They sit in a
large group on that porch and take measurements of character as
importantly as if they constituted the jury of heaven. When I arrived at
Hemlock Inn I at once cast my eye searchingly about me. Perceiving this
assemblage, I cried, 'There they are!' Barely waiting to change my
clothes, I made for this formidable body and endeavoured to conciliate
it. Almost every day I sit down among them and lie like a machine.
Privately I believe they should be hanged, but publicly I glisten with
admiration. Do you know, there is one of 'em who I know has not moved
from the inn in eight days, and this morning I said to her, 'These long
walks in the clear mountain air are doing you a world of good.' And I
keep continually saying, 'Your frankness is so charming!' Because of the
great law of universal balance, I know that this illustrious corps will
believe good of themselves with exactly the same readiness that they
will believe ill of others. So I ply them with it. In consequence, the
worst they ever say of me is, 'Isn't that Mr. Hollanden a peculiar man?'
And you know, my boy, that's not so bad for a literary person." After
some thought he added: "Good people, too. Good wives, good mothers, and
everything of that kind, you know. But conservative, very conservative.
Hate anything radical. Can not endure it. Were that way themselves once,
you know. They hit the mark, too, sometimes. Such general volleyings
can't fail to hit everything. May the devil fly away with them!"

Hawker regarded the group nervously, and at last propounded a great
question: "Say, I wonder where they all are recruited? When you come to
think that almost every summer hotel----"

"Certainly," said Hollanden, "almost every summer hotel. I've studied
the question, and have nearly established the fact that almost every