THE LITTLE PICTURE gallery at M——is a typicalmusee de province——cold, musty, unvisited, and enriched chiefly with miniature works by painters whose maturity was not to be powerful. The floors are tiled in brick, and the windows draped in faded moreen; the very light seems pale and neutral, as if the dismal lack-lustre atmosphere of the […]

I The weather had turned so much worse that the rest of the day was certainly lost. The wind had risen and the storm gathered force; they gave from time to time a thump at the firm windows and dashed even against those protected by the veranda their vicious splotches of rain. Beyond the lawn, […]

Part I When the porter’s wife, who used to answer the house-bell, announced “A gentleman and a lady, sir” I had, as I often had in those days–the wish being father to the thought–an immediate vision of sitters. Sitters my visitors in this case proved to be; but not in the sense I should have […]

I George Dane had opened his eyes to a bright new day, the face of nature well washed by last night’s downpour and shining as with high spirits, good resolutions, lively intentions–the great glare of recommencement in short fixed in his patch of sky. He had sat up late to finish work–arrears overwhelming, then at […]