“Gobo for a monkey.”
All the time, however, in Another Place, the Master of the Revels—but, after all, that is no concern of ours.
CHAPTER XIV
UNGENTLEMANLIKE BEHAVIOR OF JIM LASCELLES
JIM LASCELLES continued his labors. He arrived at Hill Street each morning at ten, and worked with diligence until two p.m. Urged by the forces within him, and sustained by the injudicious counsel of his mother, he devoted his powers to the yellow hair, in spite of the fact that by the terms of his commission it was his duty to copy the auburn.
About three days after the dance he was interrupted one morning by Lord Cheriton. Jim was feeling rather depressed. For one thing his conscience smote him. He had deliberately risked the loss of a sum of money which he could not afford to lose; and further, it was most likely that he was about to offer an affront to his only patron. The more work he put into the picture, the more marked became the difference between it and the original. Again, and this perhaps was an equally solid reason for his depression, this morning the Goose Girl had forsaken him. She had gone for a ride in the park with her duke.
Doubtless Cheriton was sharing Jim’s depression. At least, when he entered the drawing-room to inspect the labors of his protégé, a countenance which, as a general rule, made a point of exhibiting a scrupulous amiability, was clouded over.
Cheriton’s scrutiny of Jim’s labors was long and particular.
“I invite you to be frank with me, Lascelles,” said he. “Is this a copy of the Dorset, or is it a portrait of a living person?”
By nature Jim was a simple and ingenuous fellow. But really his present predicament was so awkward that he did not know what reply to make.
“Some of it is Gainsborough,” said Jim, lamely, “and some of it, I am afraid, is nature.”