A Difference of Opinion.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 98, 22 October 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Difference of Opinion.

4> Both Violet and Reggie had received so many presents that by the time their wedding-day was at hand the gratitude with which they had welcomed the first was changing into criticism. Violet, particularly, had developed so high an ideal of her friends' generosity that it was becoming difficult to satisfy it. Therefore when Reggie came in one evening with a parcel under his arm she did not rush at him as she would have done a month earlier, but merely asked him who sent it. ' Dear old Billy Morton,' answered Reggie ; •it came just as I was coming here, so I brought it on !' 'Billy Morton? Oh, he's an artist, isntt he ? Then it ought to be something really nice, something old and quaiut. Do make haste and open it.' Reggie looked doubtful. « Well, he's awfully clever, but he doesn't make much. He's not popular, you see ; he's only appreciated by a few people who care for art and understand it.' 'Like you, dear/ said Violet, admiringly. Reggie smiled. He knew he had a pretty taste in art, and he was gratified that Violet had recognised it. 'It's an odd shape,' she said. *I do hope it's not another tray, unless it's a silver one.' ' I don't think he could run to a tray,' said Reggie. 'It's one of his own pictures.' ' So it is !' exclaimed Violet as the last wrapper fell off the gift. ' How awfully kind of him, isn't it, Vi ?' Reggie said, and he popped it up in a good light and looked at it with an air of knowledge. Violet looked at it, too. She was very anxious not to be behindhand in her appreciation of art, and of oourse pictures were charming, and one must have some in a house ; but she could not help feeling disappointed that it was not even a plated tray. They already had some very nice engravings, and one could get those reproduced things so cheaply, for odd places on ,the walls. 'Doit you like it? Isn't it wonderf ullj clever, dear V said Reggie, as she hesitated to express an opinion. 'Well, I'm delighted with the picture, but it hasn't cost him anything, has it ? It's rather like a doctor giving you a prescription for a present, isn't it ? Or a shoemaker sending you a pair of his shoes ?' Reggie did not conceal his dissatisfaction at her sentiments, but he reminded himself that women are, by nature, more practical than artistic, and he generously refrained fiK>m holding her responsible for a failing common to her sex, so he answered, ' I don't think one should look at it that way ; and, as a matter of fact, he puts a very high price on hie work.' « Oh, does he really ? Well, it is wonderfully clever, I saw that at once, but, Reggie, I thought you said he was hard up ? how can he be if he gets good prices ?' ' I didn't say he got them,' replied Reggie. Violet felt she had been deceived. ' Oh, you mean he never sells anything ?' Her lover admitted that the artist's works were not quoted in the picture market, but he intimated that the fact was a proof of their high value. f I told you that only a few people cared for his things,' he said reproachfully. 'He knows that I am one of the few, and I feel rather flattered at his sending me this.' He thought it would have been sympathetic of Violet to have seen Mr, Morton's gift in the same light, but she only said, 'I suppose he can't keep them all himself, and if no one buys his things he's naturally rather glad of an opportunity of getting rid of them.' Reggie congratulated himself on his good temper as without a word he removed the painting to a dimmer part of the room. Violet understood that he was disappointed in her ; she thought it unreasonable of him, and she wondered why men were supposed to be so much more businees-like than women. No sensible woman would have preferred a picture of an uncertain value and subject to something solidly useful, with a price that could be seen in the btores list. But she was very fond of Reggie, and she knew that one roust make allowances for men's little weaknesses, so, with the intention of being: conciliatory,

she said, ' Don't put it right away, Reggie; it's really vory pretty, and you must write and say how pleased we are with it.' Reggie said that ho certainly meant to do so at once, and she knew from his tone that her effort to be ; agreeable had not been quite successful. ( ' You must ask him to come and see us when we are settled in our own home,' she said gently, and Reggie's gravity relaxed ; after all she justified his devotion to her. 1 1 will, darling,' he replied. ' I'll tell him he must come and see how | well hia painting looks hanging in our little house.' Violet smiled back at him with answering affection. ' Do, dear ; it will look beautiful in your study; you will want something between the bookcase and the door.' 'It can't go in that dark little room, Vi,' he said. 'It must hang in the drawing-room. It will be in a good light there.' ' Not in my drawing-room, I think. ! Reggie, it's much more suitable in your study.' ' But, my dear girl, it will never ■ be seen there ; it would be absurd to ; hang a valuable picture in that room.' ' Would you really call it valu- ! able ?' asked Violet, with gentle j sarcasm. j 1 Artistically, yes,' said Reggie i firmly. ' Then, as you seem better able to appreciate it than anyone else, I surely your study is the right place for it.' Reggie left her side and stood defiantly on the hearthrug. 'We may possibly have one or two visitors capable of understanding it,' he said. 'My dear Reggie, how dreadfully I serious you are about it!' She spoke ! lightly, being determined not to lose I her temper over such a trifle. ' Hang it in the dining-room, if you like, then you and your one or two friends can stand in a row and admire it.' Reginald did not echo her laugh ; he failed to see anything humorous iv her suggestion. ' What objection have you to its being in the drawingroom ?' * Oh, lots ; I don't much care for it, and then I've arranged in my mind how I'm going to manage the walls, and it won't harmonise with the paper — surely that objection appeals to you ?' He reminded her that, as yet, the paper was not chosen. 4 But I know what I'm going to have, it's to be yellow,' she said conclusively. He glanced at Mr. Morton's work ; certainly it was not designed to hang on a yellow wall. ' There's no necessity for yellow, 7 he remarked. ' Really, Reggie, you can't expect me to rearrange all my room for the sake of your poor picture, as you call it !' she retorted. ' One good painting is worth a dozen engravings and silver tables and things.' 'I did think you would let me have my drawing-room as I liked,' said Violet. 'Bat of course it's your house, and if you want to upset all my plans — and it's not as though Mr. Morton was a well-known artist,' she added with expressive vagueness. ' I don't see how hanging the thing on the wall can upset your plans,' said Reggie. ( I suppose a man can't, but I did think you were different from most men.' She sighed, and her whole attitude showed that her belief in him was shattered. He tried not to feel himself a tyrant. 'Do you want me to hurt old Morton's feelings?' he asked reproachfully. ' They seem more important than mine ; but I suppose a man's friends are always more to him than — than anyone else. 1 Reggie made no answer, .thinking that a silent dignity would be more effective than speech, and, as a sign that he considered the conversation was better ended, he began to wrap the picture up again. She watched him a minute, then she spoke with forced calmness. 'It seems almost a pity that Mr. Morton t troubled to send it as it has to go back directly,' she said. * Go back ?' cried Reggie. * Yes, of course ; presents are always sent back when an engagement is broken off.' 'Do you mean that you — that we ' he faltered. ' We've kept a list of everything,' she went on. * Mother and the girls will help me pack them up. I don't know what you can do about the house ; you might give up the lease, perhaps ' 'You're joking, Violet!' he exclaimed. ' £"ou can't mean that all because of a wretched picture !' ' A valuable picture,' she gently corrected him. ' I wish he'd never sent the beastly thing !' 'Isn't that rather ungrateful? You forget its artistic worth.' Her voice trembled a little, but before he could take advantage of that suggestion of regret a servant entered the room with a note and a parcel. They were from Mr. Morton, he said. Reggie tore the note open, and when he had read it, he said, ' It's a mistake ; he's sent us the wrong present ; this is for another man.' ' Then do be quick and open the right one,' said Violet, and she helped him to cut the string. The new gift was an antique mirror. 'It's just what we want!' cried Violet. J

'Then what a pity it has to go back !' said Reggie quietly. She looked up at him, and down at the mirror. 'It would look so nice in my — in our drawing-room.' ' It shall hang there, then,' he said generously. — A Hood, in the Westminster.