In her eagerness for success, Christine did not realize how dangerous an experiment she was trying. She could not look upon such a face as Dennis Fleet's, eloquent with that which should never fail to touch a woman's heart with sympathy, and then forget it when she chose. Moreover, though she knew it not, in addition to her interest in him as an art study, his strong, positive nature affected her cool, negative one most pleasantly. His earnest manifested feeling fell like sunlight on a heart benumbed with cold. Thus, under the stimulus of his presence, she found that she could paint or sketch to much better purpose than when alone. This knowledge made her rejoice in secret over the opportunity she could now have, as Dennis again assisted her in hanging pictures, and affixing to the walls ornaments of various kinds. Coming to him one morning in the store, she said, "I am going to ask a favor of you again." Dennis looked as if she were conferring the greatest of favors. His face always lighted up when she spoke to him. "It is very kind of you to ask so pleasantly for what you can command," he said. "To something of the same effect you answered before, and the result was the disagreeable experience at Miss Brown's." Dennis's brow contracted a little, but he said, heroically, "I will go to Miss Brown's again if you wish it." "How self-sacrificing you are!" she replied, with a half-mischievous smile. "Not as much so as you imagine," he answered, flushing slightly. "Well, set your mind at rest on that score. Though not very merciful, as you know, I would put no poor soul through that ordeal again. In this case you will only have to encounter one of the tormentors you met on that occasion, and I will try to vouch for her better behavior." Then she added, seriously: "I hope you will not think the task beneath you. You do not seem to have much of the foolish pride that stands in the way of so many Americans, and then"--looking at him with a pleading face--"I have so set my heart upon it, and it would be such a disappointment if you were unwilling!" "You need waste no more ammunition on one ready to surrender at discretion," he said. "Very well; then I shall treat you with all the rigors of a prisoner of war. I shall carry you away captive to my new castle on the north side and put you at your old menial task of hanging pictures and decorating in various ways. As eastern sovereigns built their palaces and adorned their cities by the labors of those whom the fortunes of war threw into their hands, so your skill and taste shall be useful to me; and I, your head task-mistress," she added, with her insinuating smile, "will be ever present to see that there is no idling, nothing but monotonous toil. Had you not better have stood longer in the defensive?" Dennis held out his hands in mock humility and said: "I am ready for my chains. You shall see with what fortitude I endure my captivity."