livelihood by sitting for them to artists. Not
being in the humour for work, I arranged with
her to come on the following day, promising, of
course, to remunerate her for her loss of time,
and she went away. In about five minutes she
returned, and, speaking to me privately, stated
that she had looked forward to the money for
the day's sitting, and would be inconvenienced
by the want of it; would I let her have a part?
There being no difficulty on this point, she
again went. Close to the street in which I live
there is another of a very similar name, and
persons who are not familiar with my address
often go to it by mistake. The model's way lay
directly through it, and, on arriving there, she
was accosted by a lady and gentleman, who
asked if she could inform them where I lived?
They had forgotten my right address, and were
endeavouring to find me by inquiring of persons
whom they met; in a few more minutes they
were shown into my room.

My new visitors were strangers to me.
They had seen a portrait I had painted, and
wished for likenesses of themselves and their
children. The price I named did not deter
them, and they asked to look round the studio
to select the style and size they should prefer.
My friend of the 3rd West York, with infinite
address and humour, took upon himself the office
of showman, dilating on the merits of the
respective works in a manner that the diffidence
that is expected in a professional man when
speaking of his own productions would not have
allowed me to adopt. The inspection proving
satisfactory, they asked whether I could paint
the pictures at their house in the country, and
there being no difficulty on this point, an
engagement was made for the following autumn,
subject to my writing to fix the time when I
might be able to leave town for the purpose.
This being adjusted, the gentleman gave me his
card, and they left. Shortly afterwards my
friend went also, and on looking for the first time
at the card left by the strangers, I was
somewhat disappointed to find that though it
contained the name of Mr. and Mrs. Kirkbeck, there
was no address. I tried to find it by looking
at the Court Guide, but it contained no such
name, so I put the card in my writing-desk, and
forgot for a time the entire transaction.

Autumn came, and with it a series of engagements
I had made in the north of England.
Towards the end of September, 1858, I was
one of a dinner-party at a country-house on
the confines of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
Being a stranger to the family, it was by a
mere accident that I was at the house at
all. I had arranged to pass a day and a
night with a friend in the neighbourhood,
who was intimate at the house, and had
received an invitation, and the dinner occurring
on the evening in question, I had been asked to
accompany him. The party was a numerous
one, and as the meal approached its termination,
and was about to subside into the dessert, the
conversation became general. I should here
mention that my hearing is defective; at some
times more so than at others, and on this
particular evening I was extra deaf—so much so,
that the conversation only reached me in the
form of a continued din. At one instant,
however, I heard a word distinctly pronounced,
though it was uttered by a person at a
considerable distance from me, and that word was—
Kirkbeck. In the business of the London season
I had forgotten all about the visitors of the
spring, who had left their card without the
address. The word reaching me under such
circumstances, arrested my attention, and
immediately recalled the transaction to my
remembrance. On the first opportunity that offered,
I asked a person whom I was conversing with if
a family of the name in question was resident in
the neighbourhood. I was told, in reply, that
a Mr. Kirkbeck lived at A—— , at the
farther end of the county. The next morning I
wrote to this person, saying that I believed
lie called at my studio in the spring, and had
made an arrangement with me, which I was
prevented fulfilling by there being no address on
his card; furthermore, that I should shortly be
in his neighbourhood on my return from the
north, but should I be mistaken in addressing
him, I begged he would not trouble himself to
reply to my note. I gave as my address, The
Post-office, York. On applying there three
days afterwards, I received a note from Mr.
Kirkbeck, stating that he was very glad he had
heard from me, and that if I would call on my
return, he would arrange about the pictures;
he also told me to write a day before I proposed
coming, that he might not otherwise engage
himself. It was ultimately arranged that I
should go to his house the succeeding Saturday,
stay till Monday morning, transact afterwards
what matters I had to attend to in London, and
return in a fortnight to execute the commissions.

The day having arrived for my visit, directly
after breakfast I took my place in the morning
train from York to London. The train would
stop at Doncaster, and after that at Retford
junction, where I should have to get out in order
to take the line through Lincoln to A—— . The
day was cold, wet, foggy, and in every way as
disagreeable as I have ever known a day to
be in an English October. The carriage in
which I was seated had no other occupant, than
myself, but at Doncaster a lady got in. My
place was back to the engine and next to the
door. As that is considered the ladies' seat, I
offered it to her; she, however, very graciously
declined it, and took the corner opposite, saying,
in a very agreeable voice, that she liked
to feel the breeze on her cheek. The next few
minutes were occupied in locating herself. There
was the cloak to be spread under her, the skirts
of the dress to be arranged, the gloves to be
tightened, and such other trifling arrangements
of plumage as ladies are wont to make before
settling themselves comfortably at church or
elsewhere, the last and most important being
the placing back over her hat the veil that
concealed her features. I could then see that the