'Betty,' I said, 'Miss Stuart and I are not altogether strangers; we have met once or twice in an informal way; but, now that we have been brought together to-night, under your auspices, don't you think--just to signalise the event--you might offer her a cup of tea?' 'Eh, Maister Weelum! you read me like a book. I was juist gaun to suggest that. The kettle's at the boil, an' it'll no' tak' me a meenit. Will--will I bring doon the tea-set frae the drawin'-room--your mother's, ye ken?' 'Yes, yes, Betty, if you please; and Miss Stuart will honour us in handseling it. It hasn't been used since I came here;' and before my guest could say 'Yea' or 'Nay,' Betty had disappeared. I drew the chair nearer the fire, and, pipe in hand, was about to ask my _vis-à-vis_ if I might smoke, when I saw her gaze wander round the walls of my room and ultimately rest on my picture. 'Oh, Mr Russell,' she exclaimed, as she rose to her feet--'why, that is surely the picture I painted?' 'It is, Miss Stuart,' I quietly said. 'It's the picture you had just finished the first time I saw you in the flesh, and I assure you I am very proud to be the possessor of it.' She stood looking up at it, beating a tattoo with her fingers on the table, and I saw the warm blood mounting her neck and cheek. 'I hope you don't mind my having it?' I asked. 'Oh no; but--well, you must have put yourself to some trouble to get it--more than it's worth, I'm afraid, for it was presented to a bazaar many miles away; and, you'll pardon me, but I cannot understand your putting so much value on it. It is really not a good bit of work, though the subject appealed to me so much.' 'Now, Miss Stuart, please do not belittle my purchase--your labour of love, I may call it. I know a little about art; in fact, though I don't paint now, it has always been, and still is, my hobby, and in my judgment you have no reason to be ashamed of this example of your handiwork. As to my motive in buying it--well, I am a native of this village, as Betty has perhaps already told you, and to me it and its environs will ever be my earthly paradise. I know every step of the countryside around. As a boy I hunted in its fields, explored its woods, and fished its streams. During the years I have been settled in Edinburgh, never a day has passed but my thoughts have strayed homeward, and the identical spot on which you sketched this picture is the one, above all others, around which my most hallowed memories are centred. Whenever I thought of my quiet village home my mind meandered down the Gillfoot road, and the view which inspired you to this effort has always been with me, for it is, as it were, photographed on my brain.' 'Oh, I quite understand you,' she said slowly--'quite. But how did you find out where it was for sale?'