Armorel, it is true, knew but little of the crooked paths by which many men perform this earthly pilgrimage from the world which is to the world which is to come. Children born on Samson--nay, even those also of St. Mary's--have few opportunities of observing these ways. That is why all Scillonians are perfectly honest: they do not know how to cheat--even those who might wish to become dishonest, if they knew. In her five years' apprenticeship the tree of knowledge had dropped some of its baleful fruit at Armorel's feet: that cannot be avoided even in a convent garden. Yet she had not eaten largely of the fruit, nor with the voracity that distinguishes many young people of both sexes when they get hold of these apples. In other words, she only knew of craft and falsehood in general terms, as they are set forth in the Gospels and by the Apostles, and especially in the Book of Revelation, which expressly states the portion of liars. Yet, even with this slight foundation to build upon, Armorel was well aware that here was a fraud of a most monstrous character. Surely, there never was, before this man, any man in the world who dared to present to the world another man's paintings, and to call them his own? Men and women have claimed books which they never wrote--witness the leading case of the false George Eliot and the story told by Anthony Trollope; men have pretended to be well-known writers--did I not myself once meet a man in an hotel pretending to be one of our most genial of story-tellers? Men have written things and pretended that they were the work of famous hands. Literature--alas!--hath many impostors. But in Art the record is clean. There are a few ghosts, to be sure, here and there--sporadic spectres!--but they are obscure and mostly unknown. Armorel had never heard or seen any of them. Surely there never before was any man like unto this man! And, apart from the colossal impudence of the thing, she began to consider the profound difficulties in carrying it out. Because, you see, no one man, unaided, could carry it through. It requires the consent, the silence, and the active--nay, the zealous--cooperation of another man. And how are you to get that man?