Shepson waited to observe the result of this overwhelming announcement, and Stanwell, after a momentary halt of surprise, brought out laughingly: "But this _is_ a Mungold. Is this what she calls being original?" "Shoost exactly," said Shepson, with unexpected acuteness. "That's vat dey all want--something different from what all deir friends have got, but shoost like it all de same. Dat's de public all over! Mrs. Millington don't want a Mungold, because everybody's got a Mungold, but she wants a picture that's in the same sdyle, because dat's _de_ sdyle, and she's afraid of any oder!" Stanwell was listening with real enjoyment. "Ah, you know your public," he murmured. "Vell, you do, too, or you couldn't have painted dat," the dealer retorted. "And I don't say dey're wrong--mind dat. I like a bretty picture myself. And I understand the way dey feel. Dey're villing to let Sargent take liberties vid them, because it's like being punched in de ribs by a King; but if anybody else baints them, they vant to look as sweet as an obituary." He turned earnestly to Stanwell. "The thing is to attract their notice. Vonce you got it they von't gif you dime to sleep. And dat's why I'm here to-day--you've attracted Mrs. Millington's notice, and vonce you're hung in dat new ball-room--dat's vere she vants you, in a big gold panel--vonce you're dere, vy, you'll be like the Pianola--no home gompleat without you. And I ain't going to charge you any commission on the first job!" He stood before the painter, exuding a mixture of deference and patronage in which either element might predominate as events developed; but Stanwell could see in the incident only the stuff for a good story. "My dear Shepson," he said, "what are you talking about? This is no picture of mine. Why don't you ask me to do you a Corot at once? I hear there's a great demand for them still in the West. Or an Arthur Schracker--I can do Schracker as well as Mungold," he added, turning around a small canvas at which a paint-pot seemed to have been hurled with violence from a considerable distance. Shepson ignored the allusion to Corot, but screwed his eyes at the picture. "Ah, Schracker--vell, the Schracker sdyle would take first rate if you were a foreigner--but, for goodness sake, don't try it on Mrs. Millington!" Stanwell pushed the two skits aside. "Oh, you can trust me," he cried humorously. "The pearls and the eyes very large--the extremities very small. Isn't that about the size of it?" "Dat's it--dat's it. And the cheque as big as you vant to make it! Mrs. Millington vants the picture finished in time for her first barty in the new ball-room, and if you rush the job she won't sdickle at an extra thousand. Vill you come along with me now and arrange for your first sitting?"