"And if she doesn’t?" her husband exclaimed with sudden irritation. "Well—it’ll be made just the same. You see if it isn’t! Oh, say!" and a light broke upon his face so merry that it immediately dissipated every sign of annoyance. "What do you think? I saw Owens to-day, the fellow who auctions alleged oil paintings at a minimum of two dollars each. You know the scheme—pictures painted while you wait—roses, chrysanthemums, landscapes even. Well, he offered me fifteen dollars a day to paint pictures for him. Think of it! To sit in the window before a gaping crowd painting those miserable daubs, a dozen or two a day, while he auctions them off. His impudence! If I had been as big as you are, Jack, I would have punched him." "Fifteen dollars a day," commented Rose thoughtfully. "Yes," laughed Langham, his little black eyes a-twinkle, as he clipped the last morsel from the first of his chops. "The idea!" "Well, I hope you took it," his wife suggested. "Rose!" exclaimed Langham, rising bolt upright at the table and looking into her face as if she had unwarrantably and unexpectedly hurled the blackest insult. "Rose! An artist like me!" "It is the kind of a job for an artist like you," she rejoined stingingly, with a sarcastic emphasis on just the right words. "Oh, my God! My God!" exclaimed the man sharply, turning from the table, while he threw his hands dramatically upward and clutched at the back of his head, after which he took a turn up and down the room as if beside himself with unutterable emotions. John judged that this was the fitting moment for his withdrawal, but Langham’s distress of mind was not too great for him to observe the movement and to follow. He overtook his brother-in-law in the studio-parlor, and his manner was coolly importunate. "Say, old man!" he whispered, "could you let me have five? I’m a little short on carfare, and you’ll be gone in the morning before I get up." "Sure," exclaimed John, without a moment’s hesitation, delving in the depths of the pocket from which he had produced the money for the rent, and handing out a five-dollar piece. "Thanks, old chap," said Langham, seizing it eagerly and hastening away, after an affectionate slap on the shoulder of his bigger and as he thought baser metaled brother-in-law. He did not, however, say that he would repay the loan, and Hampstead did not remark that it was the last gold coin in his pocket and that he should have no more till pay day, ten days hence.