The Pool in the Desert

before long that the line of Armour's rejected efforts had been considerably diminished. Armour told me himself that Kauffer's attitude had become almost conci

d qualifications. Be that as it may, however, the fact was imperative that only three months of the hated bond remained, and that some working substitute for the hated bond would have to be discovered at their expiration. Simla, in short, must be made to buy Armour's pictures, to appreciate them, if the days of miracle were not entirely past, but to buy them any way. On one or two occasions I had already made Simla buy things. I had cleared out young Ludlow's stables for him in a week-h

amed to think of, and

lutely unmoved of the horses Armour had got into the Salon. 'I understand,' he said, with a benevolent wink, 'that about four thousand pictures are hung every ye

William Lamb buy

erality, and finally fixed upon one scene to make her own. She winningly asked the price of it. She had never

t! You must, you must really give it to me for seventy-five.

o kind about everything, and it's so seldom one meets anybody who really cares. So l

she

did purchase a little Breton bit that I hated to see go-it was one of the things that gave the place its air; but Blum had a large

e eccentric young artist from nowhere, living on Summer Hill, canvases and little wooden panels to the extent of two hundred and fifty

better taste. Little elegances appeared in the studio-he offered you Scotch in a Venetian decanter and Melachrinos from a chased silver box. The farouche element faded out of his speech; his ideas remained as fresh and as simple as ever, bu

gan to seek his pictures, poor and small though it was, gave him, on the other hand, the most unalloyed delight. He talked of the advice of Sir William Lamb as if it were anything but that of a pompous old ass, and he made a feast with champagne for Blum that must have cost him quite as much as Blum paid for the Breton sketch. He confirmed my guess that he had never in his life until he came to Simla sold anything, so that even these small transactions were great things to him, and the earnest of a future upon which he covered his eyes not to gaze too raptly. He mentioned to me that Kauffer had been asked for his address-who could it po

taries, establishments, hill captains, grass widows, shops, and sundries, wa

! Kauffer has paid up, and his yoke is at the

a that stood between us and the vast cold hills and held its colour when all was grey but that. The hill world waited for the winter; down a far valley we could hear a barking deer. Armour talked slowly, often hesitating for a word, of the joy there was in beauty and the divinity in the man who saw it with his own eyes. I have read notable pages that brought conviction pale beside that which stole about the room from what he said. The comment may seem fantastic, but it is a comment-I care

d us as we swallowed his stuff, and our hearts were lightened. 'You fellows,' he went on nodding at the other two, 'might happen any day, but my friend John Philips comes to me across aerial spaces; he is a star I've trappe

rin, and I smiled softly and privately at the remembrance, an

o told us stories Kipling might have coveted of the under life of Port Said. Strobo talked with glorious gusto of his uncle the brigand. They were liberated men; we were all liberated men. 'Let the direction go,' cried Armour, 'and give the senses flight, taking the image as it comes, beating the air with happy pinions.' He must have been talking of his work, but I can not now remember. And what made Strobo say, of life and art, 'I have waited for ten years and five thousand pounds-no

just the middle-aged shell of a Secretary to the Government of India that I was when I set forth. Next day when my head clerk brought me the files we avoided one a