“H’m!” said the broker, “you wouldn’t want some of your Sunday school superintendents to see this now. This is what the boys down on the Board would call a barroom picture.”

But Jadwin did not laugh.

“It never struck me in just that way,” he said, gravely.

“It’s a fine piece of work, though,” Gretry hastened to add. “Fine, great colouring.”

“I like this one pretty well,” continued Jadwin, moving to a canvas by Detaille. It was one of the inevitable studies of a cuirassier; in this case a trumpeter, one arm high in the air, the hand clutching the trumpet, the horse, foam-flecked, at a furious gallop. In the rear, through clouds of dust, the rest of the squadron was indicated by a few points of colour.