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Mr Eustace Vernon is not by any error to be i to bring e maiden for his own selfish pleasure Not at all As he hiirl He was a master of two arts, and to these he had devoted hi But one cannot paint for all the hours there are In the intervals of painting Vernon always sought to exercise his other art One is limited, of course, by the possibilities, but he liked to have always at least one love affair on hand And just now there were none--none at least possessing the one charm that irresistibly drew hied onletters al them

The country had been unfortunately barren of interest until his eyes fell on that sketching figure in the pink dress For he respected one of his arts no less than the other, and would as soon have thought of painting a vulgar picture as of undertaking a vulgar love-affair He was no paverade his art by caricatures drawn in hotel bars Dairy ht hi to say to a little milliner He wanted the e who said: "The love of pleasure spoils the pleasure of love"

There is a gift, less rare than is supposed, of wiping the slate clean of inity of soul that makes each new kiss the first kiss, each new love the only love This gift was Vernon's, and he had cultivated it so earnestly, so delicately, that except in certain moods when he lost his temper, and with it his control of his i even to a conservatory flirtation so of the fresh emotion of a schoolboy in love

Betty's aardnesses, which he took for advances, had chilled hih less than they would have done had not one of the evil-tempered moods been on him

He had dreaded lest the affair should advance too quickly His own taste was for the first steps in an affair of the heart, the delicate doubts, the planned s He did not question his own ability to conduct the affair capably from start to finish, but he hated to skip the dainty preliminaries He had feared that with Betty he should have to skip them, for he knew that it is only in their first love affairs that women have the patience to watch the flower unfold itself He himself was of infinite patience in that pastime He bit his lip and struck with his cane at the buttercup heads He had ood and sweet" his "young and innocent and beautiful like--like" If the girl had been a shade less innocent the whole business would have been muffed--muffed hopelessly