142 Make-Believe

he said, addressing a young man who came
forward, “is Doris.”

“Tm delighted to see her,” said the
Artist.

He took some books, drawings, pipes,
and things from an old high-backed chair,
beautifully carved. “Will you take this
chair?”

Doris moved across to the chair, and for
a space surveyed the great untidy room in
silence. There were a few paintings,
mostly unfinished, but the majority of the
pictures on the walls were drawings in
black and white. She did not attempt to
investigate them closely, but even so she
perceived they had stories attaching to
them, and that these stories must needs be
fairy-tales.

“Where ts the table-cloth?” asked the
Visitor. “ All the other things are coming :
rose-leaves and sugared violets, straw-
berries and very thin bread-and-butter—all
the necessities of life. The fact is, Doris
and I were to have picnicked up the river