ch other. Clive's company is not good for
them."

"Great heavens, Maria!" cries the Colonel, starting up, "do you mean
that my boy's society is not good enough for any boy alive?"

Maria turned very red: she had said not more than she meant, but more
than she meant to say. "My dear Colonel, how hot we are! how angry you
Indian gentlemen become with us poor women! Your boy is much older than
mine. He lives with artists, with all sorts of eccentric people. Our
children are bred on quite a different plan. Hobson will succeed his
father in the bank, and dear Samuel I trust will go into the Church. I
told you, before, the views I had regarding the boys: but it was most
kind of you to think of them--most generous and kind."

"That nabob of ours is a queer fish," Hobson Newcome remarked to his
nephew Barnes. "He is as proud as Lucifer, he is always taking huff
about one thing or the other. He went off in a fume the other night
because your aunt objected to his taking the boys to the play. She don't
like their going to the play. My mother didn't either. Your aunt is a
woman who is uncommon wideawake, I can tell you."

"I always knew, sir, that my aunt was perfectly aware of the time of the
day," says Barnes, with a bow.

"And then the Colonel flies out about his boy, and says that my wife
insulted him! I used to like that boy. Before his father came he was a
good lad enough--a jolly brave little fellow."

"I confess I did not know Mr. Clive at that interesting period of his
existence," remarks Barnes.

"But since he has taken this madcap freak of turning painter," the uncle
continues, "there is no understanding the chap. Did you ever see such
a set of fellows as the Colonel had got together at his party the other
night? Dirty chaps in velvet coats and beards? They looked like a set of
mountebanks. And this young Clive is going to turn painter!"

"Very advantageous thing for the family. He'll do our pictures for
nothing. I always said he was a darling boy," simpered Barnes.

"Darling jackass!" growled out the senior. "Confound it, why doesn't my
brother set him up in some respectable business? I ain't proud. I have
not married an earl's daughter. No offence to you, Barnes."

"Not at all, sir. I can't help it if my grandfather is a gentleman,"
says Barnes, with a fascinating smile.

The uncle laughs. "I mean I don't care what a fellow is if he is a good
fellow. But a painter! hang it--a painter's no trade at all--I do