He was bending his steps to the long hall of the Italian masters, when suddenly he found himself face to face with Valentin de Bellegarde.

The young Frenchman greeted him with ardor, and assured him that he was a godsend.

He himself was in the worst of humors and he wanted some one to contradict.
"In a bad humor among all these beautiful things ?" said Newman.

"I thought you were so fond of pictures, especially the old black ones.
There are two or three here that ought to keep you in spirits." "Oh, to-day," answered Valentin, "I am not in a mood for pictures, and the more beautiful they are the less I like them.

Their great staring eyes and fixed positions irritate me.