shing them, with a view to doing perfect justice to
the subject. "Would you really?" she said, when she had finished.

The captain made no reply. He sat appalled at the way in which the old
lady was using him to pay off some of the debt that she fancied was due
to Mrs. Chinnery.

"You must see some of my daughter's pictures," she said, turning to him.
"Fruit and birds mostly, in oil colours. But then, of course, she had
good masters. There's one picture--let me see!"

She sat considering, and began to reel off the items on her fingers as
she enumerated them. "There's a plate of oranges, with a knife and
fork, a glass, a bottle, two and a half walnuts and bits of shell,
three-quarters of an apple, a pipe, a cigar, a bunch of grapes, and a
green parrot looking at it all with his head on one side."

"And very natural of him, too," murmured Mrs. Chinnery.

"It's coming here," interposed Mr. Truefitt, suddenly. "It belongs to
Mrs. Willett, but she has given it to us. I wonder which will be the
best place for it?"

The old lady looked round the room. "It will have to hang there," she
said, pointing to the "Eruption of Vesuvius," "where that beehive is."

"Bee--!" exclaimed the startled captain. He bent toward her and
explained.

"Oh, well, it don't matter," said the old lady. "I thought it was a
beehive--it looks like one; and I can't see what's written under it from
here. But that's where Cecilia's picture must go."

She made one or two other suggestions with regard to the rearrangement
of the pictures, and then, having put her hand to the plough, proceeded
to refurnish the room. And for her own private purposes she affected to
think that Mr. Truefitt's taste was responsible for the window-curtains.

"Mother has got wonderful taste," said Miss Willett, looking round. "All
over Salthaven her taste has become a--a--"

"Byword," suggested Mrs. Chinnery.

"Proverb," said Miss Willett. "Are you feeling too warm, mother?" she
asked, eying the old lady with sudden concern.

"A little," said Mrs. Willett. "I suppose it's being used to big rooms.
I always was one for plenty of space. It doesn't matter--don't trouble."

"It's no trouble," said Captain Trimblett, who was struggling with the
window. "How is that?" he inquired, opening it a little at the top and
returning to his seat.

"There is a draught down the back of my neck," said Mrs. Willett; "but
don't trouble about me if the others like it. If I get a stiff nec