Undertake it if you possibly can, for Mr.Faulkner's a liberal gentleman, who is sure to give you your own terms." I reflected for a minute or two.

The portrait was only wanted in chalk, and would not take long; besides, I might finish it in the evening, if my other engagements pressed hard upon me in the daytime.

Why not leave my luggage at the picture-dealer's, put off looking for lodgings till night, and secure the new commission boldly by going back at once with the landlord to the hotel?
I decided on following this course almost as soon as the idea occurred to me--put my chalks in my pocket, and a sheet of drawing paper in the first of my portfolios that came to hand--and so presented myself before Mr.Faulkner, ready to take his likeness, literally at five minutes' notice.
I found him a very pleasant, intelligent man, young and handsome.

He had been a great traveler; had visited all the wonders of the East; and was now about to explore the wilds of the vast South American Continent.
Thus much he told me good-humoredly and unconstrainedly while I was preparing my drawing materials.
As soon as I had put him in the right light and position, and had seated myself opposite to him, he changed the subject of conversation, and asked me, a little confusedly as I thought, if it was not a customary practice among portrait-painters to gloss over the faults in their sitters' faces, and to make as much as possible of any good points which their features might possess.
"Certainly," I answered.

"You have described the whole art and mystery of successful portrait-painting in a few words." "May I beg, then," said he, "that you will depart from the usual practice in my case, and draw me with all my defects, exactly as I am?
The fact is," he went on, after a moment's pause, "the likeness you are now preparing to take is intended for my mother.