ure-painting altogether, and took to landscape;
now producing conventional studies from Nature,--and now, again,
reveling in poetical compositions, which might have hung undetected in
many a collection as doubtful specimens of Berghem or Claude.

But whatever department of painting Valentine tried to excel in, the
same unhappy destiny seemed always in reserve for each completed effort.
For years and years his pictures pleaded hard for admission at the
Academy doors, and were invariably (and not unfairly, it must be
confessed) refused even the worst places on the walls of the Exhibition
rooms. Season after season he still bravely struggled on, never
depressed, never hopeless while he was before his easel, until at
last the day of reward--how long and painfully wrought for!--actually
arrived. A small picture of a very insignificant subject--being only a
kitchen "interior," with a sleek cat on a dresser, stealing milk from
the tea-tray during the servant's absence--was benevolently marked
"doubtful" by the Hanging Committee; was thereupon kept in reserve, in
case it might happen to fit any forgotten place near the floor--did fit
such a place--and was really hung up, as Mr. Blyth's little unit of a
contribution to the one thousand and odd works exhibited to the public,
that year, by the Royal Academy.

But Valentine's triumph did not end here. His picture of the treacherous
cat stealing the household milk--entitled, by way of appealing jocosely
to the strong Protestant interest, "The Jesuit in the Family,"--was
really sold to an Art-Union prize-holder for ten pounds. Once furnished
with a bank note won by his own brush, Valentine indulged in the most
extravagant anticipations of future celebrity and future wealth; and
proved, recklessly enough, that he believed as firmly as any other
visionary in the wildest dreams of his own imagination, by marrying, and
setting up an establishment, on the strength of the success which had
been achieved by "The Jesuit in the Family."

He had been for some time past engaged to the lady who had now become
Mrs. Valentine Blyth. She was the youngest of eight sisters, who formed
part of the family of a poor engraver, and who, in the absence of any
mere money qualifications, were all rich alike in the ownership of most
magnificent Christian names. Mrs. Blyth was called Lavinia-Ada; and hers
was by far the humblest name to be found among the whole sisterhood.
Valentine's relations all objected