"Sit down, child. I have given up painting for the present, and have gone in for pottery, and I should not be able to make use of fair Helen herself, but I won't let anything like you escape me, not I." Lilly handed him her benefactor's letter, which she had received the day before, and enlightened him as to the mistake he had made. "Now his manner will change," she thought. Nothing of the sort took place. "Botheration!" he said, scratching his head. "Noblest of women, why are you so beautiful? Quondam general's wife"--here she was "general's wife" again--"I had imagined spectacles and pimples, and now something like this comes along." "Then you probably know what my motive is in visiting you?" asked Lilly, who was too faint-hearted to express resentment at his tone. He clapped his fleshy hand to his forehead. "One moment, one moment. Mr. Dehnicke, my dry bread-giver--dry referring to bread as well as to giver--_did_ say something to me day before yesterday, but I suffer from congenital defect of my faculties of apprehension, and I hope you will be good enough to--" When Lilly explained the nature of her desires, he broke out into unrestrained laughter. "That you shall have, my aristocratic friend. You shall certainly enjoy the benefit of my instruction. Even if you hadn't been foam-born! Such a treat doesn't happen every day. I will charm so many sunsets out of the heavens and set them on glass in hues so roseate you will never be able to look a rose in the face again." Lilly was by no means ignorant that in her capacity of aristocratic lady, the part she wished to play, she should have left the studio long before. But she was too eager to avail herself of his readiness to instruct; she could not throw away the opportunity so painfully won. "What would Anna von Schwertfeger do in such a situation?" she asked herself. Then, tossing her head, she said: "But there are certain matters to be settled before we proceed further. In the first place, I should like to know what your charges are, so that I may decide if I can afford to pay for such valuable services--" He looked somewhat disconcerted, and remarked that Mr. Dehnicke would probably look out for that. "Mr. Dehnicke has nothing at all to do with my money matters," she replied. "If there should be any misunderstanding as to that--" she grasped her parasol--she had kept her gloves on. "Tut, tut, don't be so hasty," said Mr. Kellermann. He reflected a few moments, and then mentioned a reasonable charge, five marks a morning. "The ruby ring," thought Lilly, and nodded. "I'm curious as to the second condition," he said. "It is more important to me than the first. It is--I should like to be treated like a lady."