Will Warburton | Page 6

had been sitting with a leg over the arm of his chair
suddenly changed his position.
"That reminds me," he said. "I came across the Pomfrets in
Switzerland."
"Where? When?"
"At Trient ten days ago. I spent three or four days with them. Hasn't
Miss Elvan mentioned it?"
"I haven't heard from her for a long time," replied Franks. "Well, for
more than a week. Did you meet them by chance?"
"Quite. I had a vague idea that the Pomfrets and their niece were
somewhere in Switzerland."
"Vague idea!" cried the artist "Why, I told you all about it, and growled
for five or six hours one evening here because I couldn't go with them."
"So you did," said Warburton, "but I'm afraid I was thinking of
something else, and when I started for the Alps, I had really forgotten
all about it. I made up my mind suddenly, you know. We're having a
troublesome time in Ailie Street, and it was holiday now or never. By
the bye, we shall have to wind up. Sugar spells ruin. We must get out of
it whilst we can do so with a whole skin."
"Ah, really?" muttered Franks. "Tell me about that presently; I want to
hear of Rosamund. You saw a good deal of her, of course?"
"I walked from Chamonix over the Col de Balme--grand view of Mont
Blanc there! Then down to Trient, in the valley below. And there, as I
went in to dinner at the hotel, I found the three. Good old Pomfret
would have me stay awhile, and I was glad of the chance of long talks

with him. Queer old bird, Ralph Pomfret."
"Yes, yes, so he is," muttered the artist, absently. "But Rosamund --was
she enjoying herself?"
"Very much, I think. She certainly looked very well."
"Have much talk with her?" asked Franks, as if carelessly.
"We discussed you, of course. I forget whether our conclusion was
favourable or not."
The artist laughed, and strode about the room with his hands in his
pockets.
"You know what?" he exclaimed, seeming to look closely at a print on
the wall. "I'm going to be married before the end of the year. On that
point I've made up my mind. I went yesterday to see a house at
Fulham--Mrs. Cross's, by the bye, it's to let at Michaelmas, rent
forty-five. All but settled that I shall take it. Risk be hanged. I'm going
to make money. What an ass I was to take that fellow's first offer for
'Sanctuary'! It was low water with me, and I felt bilious. Fifty guineas!
Your fault, a good deal, you know; you made me think worse of it than
it deserved. You'll see; Blackstaffe'll make a small fortune out of it; of
course he has all the rights-- idiot that I was! Well, it's too late to talk
about that.--And I say, old man, don't take my growl too literally. I
don't really mean that you were to blame. I should be an ungrateful cur
if I thought such a thing."
"How's 'The Slummer' getting on?" asked Warburton
good-humouredly.
"Well, I was going to say that I shall have it finished in a few weeks. If
Blackstaffe wants 'The Slummer' he'll have to pay for it. Of course it
must go to the Academy, and of course I shall keep all the
rights--unless Blackstaffe makes a really handsome offer. Why, it ought
to be worth five or six hundred to me at least. And that would start us.
But I don't care even if I only get half that, I shall be married all the
same. Rosamund has plenty of pluck. I couldn't ask her to start life on a
pound a week--about my average for the last two years; but with two or
three hundred in hand, and a decent little house, like that of Mrs.
Cross's, at a reasonable rent --well, we shall risk it. I'm sick of waiting.
And it isn't fair to a girl--that's my view. Two years now; an
engagement that lasts more than two years isn't likely to come to much
good. You'll think my behaviour pretty cool, on one point. I don't forget,

you old usurer, that I owe you something more than a hundred
pounds--"
"Pooh!"
"Be poohed yourself! But for you, I should have gone without dinner
many a day; but for you, I should most likely have had to chuck
painting altogether, and turn clerk or dock-labourer. But let me stay in
your debt a little longer, old man. I can't put off my marriage any
longer, and just at first I shall want all the money I can lay my hands
on."
At this moment Mrs. Hopper entered with a lamp. There was a pause in
the conversation. Franks