They've dismissed me." "Who have ?" "The relatives." "Why ?" He shook his head.
"I hope you made them pay you your month," said she firmly.
He was glad to be able to give a satisfactory answer.
After a pause she resumed bravely: "So Mr.Farll was one of these artists?
At least so I see according to the paper." He nodded.
"It's a very funny business," she said.

"But I suppose there's some of them make quite a nice income out of it.

_You_ ought to know about that, being in it, as it were." Never in his life had he conversed on such terms with such a person as Mrs.Alice Challice.

She was in every way a novelty for him--in clothes, manners, accent, deportment, outlook on the world and on paint.

He had heard and read of such beings as Mrs.Alice Challice, and now he was in direct contact with one of them.