"Pray, let me look at it," said Elinor, "for, I thought, I recognised a friend." "You must not see it, indeed, Miss Elinor; I dare say, you took it for anybody but the right person;" said Charlie, a good deal embarrassed, and hurriedly handing Elinor something else to look at. She was surprised at his nervous manner, but said nothing more. "I honestly think, Charlie," said Mr. Wyllys, who had been examining the landscape, that Mr. C-----, and Mr. I-----, will tell you to persevere, after this. There is something about the water, in your picture, that strikes me as unusually good." "I am very glad to hear you say so; for there is nothing I like to paint so much as water. I took great pains with that part of my piece; but it does not satisfy me yet." "Do you intend to make use of water-colours altogether, in your paintings?" asked Mr. Taylor. Charlie looked puzzled, and the merchant repeated his question. "I should think, you would find water-colours cheaper; but oils must be more durable. Which are most generally in use among painters?" Charlie, understanding the point, at last, explained that water-colours, and oils, were two entirely distinct branches of the art. "Which is your picture, there, done in?" "I am learning to paint in oils, sir." "And that porTRATE, overhead, which is your father, I presume; is that in oils, too?" "Yes, sir.--There are very few pictures, of that size, in water-colours, I believe. Here is a miniature, in water-colours, which Mrs. Van Horne lent me; I am taking a large picture, in oils, from it." Mr. Taylor examined the miniature. "It has puzzled me considerably," he observed, "to know how painters could change the size of an object, and be correct, without measuring it off in feet and inches; but, I suppose, that is what you term perspective."