The Fortunate Youth

sed yer-I can't say as how I've done much toward clothing yer-and three months on the road has knocked corners off the swell toggery yer came to me in; but I ain't beat yer or cussed yer more tha

uth, or am I a

though the 'ome might have been 'appy in its own sweet way, you wasn't. I wanted to set yer on the track of yer 'ighborn parents. I wanted to make a man of yer. I want to do the best for yer now, so I put it to yer straight: If yer likes to

Paul, "it

er thinks you'll get nearer to your 'igh-born parents by hitching up wi

owhither. Princes and princesses were as rare as hips and haws in summer-time. Their glittering equipages did not stop the van, nor did they stand at the emblazoned gateways of great parks w

yer for the next year or two?" asked Barney Bill,

Milk and Honey. He was as much stung by the delicately implied rebuke as touched by the solicitude as to his future welfare. Romantic words, such as he had read in the story-books, surged vaguely in his he

o give it the

t to me. But I won't keep yer talisman. 'Ere, see-" he made a pretenc

y relieved by his friend's magnanimity, an

, for which Paul was to repay him out of his future earnings; a Paul lodged in a small but comfortable third-floor-back, a bedroom all to himself, with a real bed, mattress, pillow, sheets, and blankets all complete, and a looking-glass, and a stand with ewer and basin so beautiful

aid good-bye, "d'yer see them there

, regarding the

e-in the piece of poetry you recite; but they'll only do it if they continues to fit. Don't get too

parable; but in his heart, for all his gratitude, he thought Barney bill rather a prosy moralizer. It wa

, and don't make no mistake about it. If you're in tro

had the novel sensation of finding some one at his beck and call. He beckoned and called often, for the sheer pleasure of it. So great was the change in his life that, in these early days, it seemed as if he had already come into his kingdom. He strutted about, poor child, like the prince in a fairy tale, and, in spite of Barney Bill's precepts, he outgrew his boots immediately. Mrs. Seddon, an old friend of Barney Bill, whom she addressed and spoke as Mr. William, kept a small shop in which she sold newspapers and twine and penny bottles of ink. In the little back-parlour Mrs. Seddon and Tane and Paul had their meals, while the shop boy, an inconsiderable creature with a perpetual cold in his head, attended to the unexpected customer. To Paul, this boy, with whom a few months ago he would have joyously changed places, was as the dust beneath his feet. He sent him on errands in

s life. The transaction gave him a princely feeling. He alone of boys, by special virtue of his origin, was capable of such a thing. Again, his welcome in the painting world confirmed him in the belief that he was a personage, born to great things. Posed on the model throne, the object of the painter's intense scrutiny, he swelled ingenuously with the conviction of his supreme importance. The lazy luxury of the model's life appealed to his sensuous temperament. He loved the warmth, the artistic setting of the studios; the pictures, the oriental rugs, the bits of armour, the old brocade, the rich cushions. If he had not bee

at and advanced with outstretched hand to meet her: "My dear Lad

u playing at

receive a lady wh

said

report progress. He bought such neckties and collars as Rowlatt wore and submitted them for Jane's approval. She thought them vastly genteel. He also entertained her with whatever jargon of art talk he managed to pick up. Thus, though the urchin gave himself airs and invested himself with affectations, which rendered him intolerable to all of his own social status, except the placid Mrs. Seddon and the adoring Jane, he was under the continuous influence of a high ambition. It made him ridiculous, but it preserved him from vicious and vulgar things. If you are conscious of being a prince in disguise qualifying for butterfly entrance i

questioned. But had they even troubled to call in the police? Barney Bill thought not, and Paul agreed. The police were very unpopular in Budge Street-almost as unpopular as Paul. In all probability the Buttons were only too glad to be rid of him. If he found no favour in the eyes of Mrs. Button, in the eyes of Button he wa

ay by day along the self-centring line. A kindly adviser suggested a gymnasium to keep him in condition for professional purposes. He took the advice, and in the course of time became a splendid young animal, a being so physically perfect as to be what the good vicar of Bluds

c institute, with whom he had picked a slight acquaintance, said one evening as they were walking homeward to

ist's model

h, sniffed. His name was Higgins

lass of the Royal Academy

ont of all kinds of peopl

rse," s

tly!" sai

do you

aid Higgins. "

a passing omnibus, and thenceforward av

r for subject pieces. He was in clamorous demand at Life Schools, where he drew a higher rate of pay, but where he was as impersonal to the intently working students as the cast of the Greek torso which other students were copying in the next room. The intimacy of the studio, the warmth and the colour and the meretricious luxury were gone from his life. On the other hand he wa

d also lost his boyish sense of importance, of being the central figure in the little stage. Disillusion began to creep over him. Would he do nothing else but this all his life? Old Erricone, the patriarchal, white-bearded Italian, the doyen of the models of London, came before his mind, a senile posturer, mumbling dreary ta

e had thought it would be a mighty fine thing to be a poet, and had tried his hand at verse. Finding he possessed some facility, he decided that he was a p

glass to hi

No signals

ike this was a very simple affair, and P

ch Paul brought home. She loved her Saturday and Sunday excursions with Paul-of late they had gone far afield: the Tower, Greenwich, Richmond-exploring London and making splendid discoveries such as Westminster Abbey and a fourpenny tea garden at Putney. She scarcely knew whether she cared for these things for themselves; but she saw them through Paul coloured by his vivid personality. Once on Chelsea Bridge he had pointed out a peculiarly ugly stretch of low-tide mud, and said: "Look at that." She, by unprecedented chance, mistaking his tone, had replied: "How lovely!" And she had thought it lovely, until his stare of rebuke and wonderment brought disillusion and spurting tears, which for the life of him he could not understand. It is very foolish, and often suicidal, of men to correct women for going into rapture over mud flats. On that occasion, however, the only resultant harm was the conviction in the girl's heart that the presence of Paul turned mud flats into beds of

lack tie, low collar and black soft felt hat (this was in the last century, please remember-epoch almost roma

ll we go?"

e, suggested Regent's Park. "At le

scious of the London taint, and laughed. "W

n the Park the hyacinths and

ne is very young and out of tune with

hey entered, he turned to her suddenly. "Look here, Jane, I want to ask you something. The other night I told a man I was an a

ty cad," said

hy did he say it? Do you think there'

ded in modification: "T

osing I don

two. Then: "If you really don't

asked

ed a pit

ed. "Tell me why you agre

agree w

u m

while. At last h

declared, with a flushed cheek,

rk suspicions were confirmed. Jane glanced at him fearful of offence. Wh

by scions of the nobility. A clerk's work was certainly genteel; but even that would be lowering to the hero. She glanced at him again, swiftly. No, he was too beautiful to be penned up in an office from nine to six-thirty every day of his life. On the other hand her feminine intuition appreciated keenly the wi

ell me, what do you

n distress; "something you do

ing a model i

es

quickly, anxious to be seen again on his pedestal. "I am getting on with my epic poe

rhyming was a never-ceasing wonder. She would sit bemus

a precocious tulip. Paul, sensitive to beauty, discoursed on flowers. Max Field had a studio in St. John's Wood opening out into a

peep at it sometimes,

rse," s

not protest. In these days, in spite of occasional outspokenness she was

ould I come?

oyish pashadom, "would de

esses of her sex, she made a

hope you're

wh

d about your b

dn't wanted to know your opini

u really wanted to

"You're the most commons

y home. Jane accom

room, at the rows of students, each in front of an easel, using his naked body for their purposes. A phrase flashed across his mind-in three years his reading had brought vocabulary-they were using his physical body for their spiritual purposes. For the moment he hated them all fiercely. They were a band of vampires. Habit and discipline alone saved him from breaking his pose and fleeing headlong. But there he was fixed, like marble, in an athlete's attitude, showing rippling muscles of neck and chest and arms and thighs all developed by the gymnasium into the perfection of Greek beauty, and all useless, more useless even, as far

and fussed up to the model-stand. "What's the matter?

ctively stiffening hims

nger in a given pose than any other mod

l, not unkindly. "You're supposed to be a Greek athlete and n

ughts. Every moment the strain grew less bearable, the consciousness of his degradation more intense. He longed for something to

ly up his spine. He bore it for a few moments, and then his over-excited nerves gave way and he d

, falling back into his Lancashire accent. "But yo'll nev

school followed him and, while h

ver agen. Aw'm doan w

ght regretfully of twenty speeches which would have more adeq