“Oh, Mr Lupex, don’t say that.”

“Ah, but I do say it.  I’ve always been pulling the devil by the tail, and never yet got as much as a good hold on to that.  And I’ll tell you why; I never got a chance when I was young.  If I could have got any big fellow, a star, you know, to let me paint his portrait when I was your age,—­such a one, let us say, as your friend Sir Raffle—­”

“What a star!” said Cradell.

“Well, I suppose he’s pretty much known in the world, isn’t he?  Or Lord Derby, or Mr Spurgeon.  You know what I mean.  If I’d got such a chance as that when I was young, I should never have been doing jobs of scene-painting at the minor theatres at so much a square yard.  You’ve got the chance now, but I never had it.”

Whereupon Mr Lupex finished his first measure of gin-and-water.

“It’s a very queer thing,—­life is,” continued Lupex; and, though he did not at once go to work boldly at the mixing of another glass of toddy, he began gradually, and as if by instinct, to finger the things which would be necessary for that operation.  “A very queer thing.  Now, remember, young gentlemen, I’m not denying that success in life will depend upon good conduct;—­of course it does; but, then, how often good conduct comes from success!  Should I have been what I am now, do you suppose, if some big fellow had taken me by the hand when I was struggling to make an artist of myself?  I could have drunk claret and champagne just as well as gin-and-water, and worn ruffles to my shirt as gracefully as many a fellow who used to be very fond of me, and now won’t speak to me if he meets me in the streets.  I never got a chance,—­never.”

“But it’s not too late yet, Mr Lupex,” said Eames.

“Yes, it is, Eames,—­yes, it is.”  And now Mr Lupex had grasped the gin-bottle.  “It’s too late now.  The game’s over, and the match is lost.  The talent is here.  I’m as sure of that now as ever I was.  I’ve never doubted my own ability,—­never for a moment.  There are men this very day making a thousand a year off their easels who haven’t so good and true an eye in drawing as I have, or so good a feeling in colours.  I could name them; only I won’t.”

“And why shouldn’t you try again?” said Eames.

“If I were to paint the finest piece that ever delighted the eye of man, who would come and look at it?  Who would have enough belief in me to come as far as this place and see if it were true?  No, Eames; I know my own position and my own ways, and I know my own weakness.  I couldn’t do a day’s work now, unless I were certain of getting a certain number of shillings at the end of it.  That’s what a man comes to when things have gone against him.”

“But I thought men got lots of money by scene-painting?”

“I don’t know what you may call lots, Mr Cradell; I don’t call it lots.  But I’m not complaining.  I know who I have to thank; and if ever I blow my own brains out I shan’t be putting the blame on the wrong shoulders.  If you’ll take my advice,”—­and now he turned round to Eames,—­“you’ll beware of marrying too soon in life.”