"Well, I had every excuse, after living with that infernal thing for a week!"
Archie looked at him, astonished.
"I say, old thing, I don"t know if I have got your meaning exactly, but you somehow give me the impression that you don"t like that jolly old work of Art."
"Like it!" cried Mr. Brewster. "It"s nearly driven me mad! Every time it caught my eye, it gave me a pain in the neck. To-night I felt as if I couldn"t stand it any longer. I didn"t want to hurt Lucille"s feelings, by telling her, so I made up my mind I would cut the d.a.m.ned thing out of its frame and tell her it had been stolen."
"What an extraordinary thing! Why, that"s exactly what old Wheeler did."
"Who is old Wheeler?"
"Artist chappie. Pal of mine. His fiancee painted the thing, and, when I lifted it off him, he told her it had been stolen. HE didn"t seem frightfully keen on it, either."
"Your friend Wheeler has evidently good taste."
Archie was thinking.
"Well, all this rather gets past me," he said. "Personally, I"ve always admired the thing. Dashed ripe bit of work, I"ve always considered. Still, of course, if you feel that way--"
"You may take it from me that I do!"
"Well, then, in that case--You know what a clumsy devil I am--You can tell Lucille it was all my fault--"
The Wigmore Venus smiled up at Archie--it seemed to Archie with a pathetic, pleading smile. For a moment he was conscious of a feeling of guilt; then, closing his eyes and hardening his heart, he sprang lightly in the air and descended with both feet on the picture. There was a sound of rending canvas, and the Venus ceased to smile.
"Golly!" said Archie, regarding the wreckage remorsefully.
Mr. Brewster did not share his remorse. For the second time that night he gripped him by the hand.
"My boy!" he quavered. He stared at Archie as if he were seeing him with new eyes. "My dear boy, you were through the war, were you not?"
"Eh? Oh yes! Right through the jolly old war."
"What was your rank?"
"Oh, second lieutenant."
"You ought to have been a general!" Mr. Brewster clasped his hand once more in a vigorous embrace. "I only hope," he added "that your son will be like you!"
There are certain compliments, or compliments coming from certain sources, before which modesty reels, stunned. Archie"s did.
He swallowed convulsively. He had never thought to hear these words from Daniel Brewster.
"How would it be, old thing," he said almost brokenly, "if you and I trickled down to the bar and had a spot of sherbet?"
THE END.