Carlo was introduced into the family picture which a great artist from London came down to the castle to paint. The dog had been painted several times before, and photographed on occasions without number—with De Vaux on his pony, with my lady standing on the terrace, or entering the family’s almshouses; but it was the first time that Carlo had been put on the same canvas with the head of the house, and in a picture which was destined to be one of the great works of the generation, secured for the castle. My lord, who himself dabbled in art, likened the introduction of Carlo into the piece to the use made of the white greyhound by Rubens in the “Arundel Family,” and to the similar employment of a dog, with the best effect, in Van Dyck’s “Wilton Family.” One cannot wonder that Carlo felt perfectly justified in regarding himself as a member of the earl’s family. But Carlo was De Vaux’s special property, and the relation between them continued unbroken, in spite of the young man’s frequent absences on his travels, during the first period of the connection. These absences were trying to Carlo, who had little else to do save to miss his friend, and pine for his return; and the more he pined, the more he was praised and petted for his fidelity and devotion, till—as the dog had naturally no dislike, but, on the contrary, a great yearning for praise and petting, provided they were administered with the delicacy which he demanded in all the dealings with him—he ran a great risk either of falling into a normal condition of pining, or of becoming guilty of the most abominable affectation, passing by insensible degrees into hardened hypocrisy. Carlo was saved from these pitfalls by De Vaux’s return from his travels, which had of course extended from Europe to Asia, including Palestine and Damascus; Africa, as far as has been made out of the course of the Nile; and America, across the continent to the Rocky Mountains. After the celebration of De Vaux coming of age—which, to tell the truth, was in its exuberant rejoicings a considerable infliction both on him and Carlo—the heir settled down as far as he was likely to do in his ancestral home, and took Carlo into his constant society, until the dog had nothing more left to wish for.