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228 to keep it from warping. Then dissolve mastic tears in turpentine and put it on with a camel's hair brush, if you have to."

It was plain that she was as averse to criticism as she was unaccustomed to it.

"In that case perhaps the cleaning can be dispensed with," she replied with dignity.

"Then I suppose I can see 'em at once," he suggested. But her embarrassment returned to her.

"They will have to be arranged," she said with a solemnity which in some way went lame.

"How many canvases are there?" he asked.

"Between twenty and thirty," was the hesitating reply.

Conkling showed his surprise.

"It'll take time, of course, to go over a bunch like that."

"That," said Georgina Keswick with an air of escape, "is why I should prefer making an appointment for some other day."

"It all depends on the pictures, of course, just how long it'll take me."