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MENTOR AND TELEMACHUS.
It is now some time since we left Mr.Blyth and Madonna in the studio.
The first was engaged, it may be remembered, in the process of brushing up Bacchanalian Nymphs in the foreground of a Classical landscape.

The second was modestly occupied in making a copy of the head of the Venus de' Medici.
The clock strikes one--and a furious ring is heard at the house-bell.
"There he is!" cries Mr.Blyth to himself.

"There's Zack! I know his ring among a thousand; it's worse even than the postman's; it's like an alarm of fire!" Here Valentine drums gently with his mahl-stick on the floor.

Madonna looks towards him directly; he waves his hand round and round rapidly above his head.