34 ARDENMOHR. 



him, was a picture for a good man to contem- 

 plate. 



" You did not fish to-day," the Major said to Ward ; 

 " how did you enjoy yourself ? " 



" Very much. Awfully pleasant and pretty, as 

 some girls would say ; but it was really charming, the 

 wild river scenes the rough banks of heath and rock 

 the faint blue of the far-off hills and then that 

 foreground of humanity, waist deep in the broken 

 current, struggling with a salmon." 



"How tersely poetical, Hope ! I declare you should 

 do it in verse." 



" Hardly; but I tried to do some sketches in 



memoriam" 



" Let us see them." 



"Here they are; but they are merely rough hints 

 for after-work." 



" Hints ! my dear boy, they are little gems of 

 colour; and, to my idea, such things, dashed off on the 

 spot, have often a lifelike freshness that more finished 

 copies may want." 



"That is quite true; and I myself find always cer- 

 tain little effects and touches in these hurried sketches 

 which by no care can I reproduce, even with the aids 

 of perfect leisure and all materials about me." 



