COMMUTER'S WIFE 185 



First, with his war horse, a print full of light and 

 brilliant blacks. Evan has a Rembrandt's Three 

 Trees, Earlom's mezzotint fruit and flower pieces, two 

 "Kit Kat" pictures by Kneller, of Dick Steele and 

 Congreve in the same style as father's Dr. Garth of 

 Dispensary fame, Tonson, the bookseller, an engrav- 

 ing of the two Tradescants, gardeners to Queen 

 Elizabeth, a set of coloured prints of men of the Lin- 

 nsean school, in which the head is as it were framed 

 in an engraved oval. He has, besides, a dozen last- 

 century prints, also coloured, of many famous gar- 

 dens of the Thames, Hampton Court, Vauxhall, 

 Kew, Ranelegh, and St. James's Park; and lastly, 

 the very apple of his eye, an engraving on copper 

 representing Charles the Second with his spaniels in 

 the gardens of the Duchess of Cleveland at Dauney 

 Court, while Rose the gardener is in the act of pre- 

 senting the king with the first English-grown pine- 

 apple. 



At last all was arranged, the garden pictures mak- 

 ing a harmonious frieze above the book-shelves. 

 Only one gap remained; the broad panel over the 

 mantelshelf was quite empty. 



" Something will turn up, as usual," said Evan, 

 shrugging his shoulders as we laughed at the omis- 

 sion, for we should have begun with filling this space. 



