“Uncle James had caught a cold too, so I went with Grissel; and found a chemist who’d been in France, and knew what a loch was and made one for me; and then I went to the gallery, and there was poor Barty sitting on a crimson velvet couch, under a picture of Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his daughters (I bought it afterwards, and I’ve got it now).
“We said how d’ye do, and sat on the couch together, and I felt dreadfully nervous and ashamed.
“Then I said:
“’You must think me very odd, Mr. Josselin, to ask you to meet me like this!’
“’I think it’s a very great honor!’ he said; ‘I only wish I deserved it.’
“And then he said nothing for quite five minutes, and I think he felt as uncomfortable as I did.
AM RHEIN
“LED WE NOT THERE A JOLLY LIFE BETWIXT THE SUN AND SHADE?”
”’Captain G
