It was a spring-like day in March when the picture was finished, and nothing remained to do but to paint in the signature.

“It is beautiful!” said Lady Hermione, with enthusiasm.  “Beautiful!  Is it at all like me?”

Paul looked from her to the picture, and back to her again.

“No,” he said, “not a bit.  You know, I am really a landscape painter.”

“What do you mean?” she cried.  “You are Peter Samways, A.R.A., the famous portrait painter!”

“No,” he said sadly.  “That was my secret.  I am Paul Samways.  A member of the Amateur Rowing Association, it is true, but only an unknown landscape painter.  Peter Samways lives in the next studio, and he is not even a relation.”

“Then you have deceived me!  You have brought me here under false pretences!” She stamped her foot angrily.  “My father will not buy that picture, and I forbid you to exhibit it as a portrait of myself.”

“My dear Lady Hermione,” said Paul, “you need not be alarmed.  I propose to exhibit the picture as ‘When the Heart is Young.’  Nobody will recognize a likeness to you in it.  And if the Duke does not buy it I have no doubt that some other purchaser will come along.”

Lady Hermione looked at him thoughtfully.  “Why did you do it?” she asked gently.

“Because I fell in love with you.”

She dropped her eyes, and then raised them gaily to his.  “Mother is still asleep,” she whispered.

“Hermione!” he cried, dropping his palette and putting his brush behind his ear.

She held out her arms to him.

. . . . . . .

As everybody remembers, “When the Heart is Young,” by Paul Samways, was the feature of the Exhibition.  It was bought for 10,000 pounds by a retired bottle manufacturer, whom it reminded a little of his late mother.  Paul woke to find himself famous.  But the success which began for him from this day did not spoil his simple and generous nature.  He never forgot his brother artists, whose feet were not yet on the top of the ladder.  Indeed, one of his first acts after he was married was to give a commission to Peter Samways, A.R.A.—­nothing less than the painting of his wife’s portrait.  And Lady Hermione was delighted with the result.

THE BARRISTER

The New Bailey was crowded with a gay and fashionable throng.  It was a remarkable case of shop-lifting.  Aurora Delaine, nineteen, was charged with feloniously stealing and conveying certain articles, the property of the Universal Stores, to wit thirty-five yards of bock muslin, ten pairs of gloves, a sponge, two gimlets, five jars of cold cream, a copy of the Clergy List, three hat-guards, a mariner’s compass, a box of drawing-pins, an egg-breaker, six blouses, and a cabman’s whistle.  The theft had been proved by Albert Jobson, a shopwalker, who gave evidence to the effect that he followed her through the different departments and saw her take the things mentioned in the indictment.