ia, _et cetera_, as Van
Nant was mad on the subject of Oriental art, and wished to study it at
the fountain-head. In the meantime both Carboys' parents went over to
the silent majority, and left him without a relative in the world,
barring Captain Morrison, who is an uncle about seven times removed and
would, of course, naturally be heir-at-law to anything he left if he had
anything to leave, poor beggar, which he hadn't. But that's getting
ahead of the story.

"Well, at the end of four years or so Van Nant came to the bottom of his
purse--hadn't a stiver left; and from dabbling in art for pleasure, had
to come down to it as a means of earning a livelihood. And he and
Carboys returned to England, and, for purposes of economy, pooled their
interests, took a small box of a house over Putney way, set up a regular
'bachelor establishment,' and started in the business of bread-winning
together. Carboys succeeded in getting a clerk's position in town; Van
Nant set about modelling clay figures and painting mediocre pictures,
and selling both whenever he could find purchasers.

"Naturally, these were slow in coming, few and far between; but with
Carboys' steady two pounds a week coming in, they managed to scrape
along and to keep themselves going. They were very happy, too, despite
the fact that Carboys had got himself engaged to Miss Morrison, and was
hoarding every penny he could possibly save in order to get enough to
marry on; and this did not tend to make Van Nant overjoyed, as such a
marriage would, of course, mean the end of their long association and
the giving up of their bachelor quarters."

"To say nothing of leaving Van Nant to rub along as best he could
without any assistance from Carboys," commented Cleek. "I think I can
guess a portion of what resulted, Mr. Narkom. Van Nant did not, of
course, in these circumstances have any tender regard for Miss
Morrison."

"No, he did not. In point of fact, he disliked her very much indeed, and
viewed the approaching wedding with extreme disfavour."

"And yet you say that nobody had an interest in doing Carboys some sort
of mischief in order to prevent that wedding from being consummated, Mr.
Narkom," said Cleek with a shrug of the shoulders. "Certainly, Van Nant
would have been glad to see a spoke put in that particular wheel; though
I freely confess I do not see what good could come of preventing it by
doing away with Carboys, as he would then be in as bad a position as