"Pardon me, but--but, Cousin Caroline," put in Olivetta, with eager
diffidence, "don't you think this is different?"

"Different?" asked Mrs. De Peyster. "How?"

"This isn't at all like the ordinary offensive newspaper thing. A
group of the most prominent social leaders, with you in the center of
the page--with you in the center of them all, where you belong! Why,
Caroline,--why--why--" In her excitement for the just glorification of
her cousin, Olivetta's power of speech went fluttering from her.

"Perhaps it may not be quite the same," admitted Mrs. De Peyster. "But
I see no reason for departing from my custom."

"If not for your own sake, then--then for the artist's sake!" Olivetta
pursued, a little more eagerly, and a little more of diffidence in
her eagerness. "You have taken up M. Dubois--you have been his
most distinguished patron--you have been trying to get him properly
started. To have his picture displayed like that, think how it will
help M. Dubois!"

Mrs. De Peyster gave Olivetta a sharp look, as though she questioned
the entire disinterestedness of this argument; then she considered
an instant; and in the main it was her human instinct to help a
struggling fellow being that dictated her decision.

"Matilda, you may give the man a photograph of the picture. And as I
treat the papers without discrimination, you may give photographs
to all the reporters who wish them. But on the understanding that M.