'What is it, papa?'
'Coriolanus and his mother.'
'Well, in my opinion, that would be very appropriate. As the other was a father and daughter, here is a mother and son; but if you don't like it, what think you of Lear and Cordelia?' Amy's voice faltered, and she dared not raise her eyes from the sketch which she affected to be examining.
'I'm not in a mood for painting to-day: I'll try tomorrow.'
'But your time, you said, was short,' Amy ventured to interpose.
'Well, if I can't get it done, he must go without it,' was his irritable reply. 'I'm not going to be tied down to the easel, whether disposed or not, for such a paltry sum.'
'I thought you told me that this gentleman would remunerate you handsomely?'
'Handsomely!' the artist scornfully repeated; 'it is better than I am usually paid, but not a fiftieth part of what I ought to receive. See how some men, not possessed of half my talent, succeed! but they have the patronage of the great to aid them.'
'And perhaps brighter days may yet dawn on you, dear father!' pleaded the daughter.
'Never!' and Beaufort rose in haste to attire himself for departure.