"Compliments!"
"Oh—I—no; but they are well done, arn't they, sir?"
"Not particularly: you speak to the artist."
"What! you painted them?"
"Yes."
"And the pictures in the hall?"
"Those too."
"Taken from nature—eh?"
"Nature," said the Italian sententiously, perhaps evasively, "lets nothing be taken from her."
"Oh!" said Frank, puzzled again.