"Excuse me; but will you oblige me by not smoking ?" Paul tossed the cigarette aside, though he was a little surprised, as the painter was an inveterate smoker.

"All right," said he, "but continue your story." "I will; it is a long one.

I hated the tanner's business from the very beginning.

Almost the first day an awkward workman scalded me so severely that the traces still remain." As he spoke he rolled up his shirt sleeve, and exhibited a scar that covered nearly all one side of his arm.

"Horrified at such a commencement, I entreated the lady superintendent, a hideous old woman in spectacles, to apprentice me to some other trade, but she sternly refused.