CHAPTER II

Chance and coincidence play curious pranks with human affairs, and
one of the most obvious facts of daily experience is that the
merest trifle, occurring in the most haphazard way, will often
suffice to change the whole intention and career of a life for
good or for evil. It is as though a musician in the composition of
a symphony should suddenly bethink himself of a new and strange
melody, and, pleasing his fancy with the innovation, should
wilfully introduce it at the last moment, thereby creating more or
less of a surprise for the audience. Something of this kind
happened to Innocent after her meeting with the painter who bore
the name of her long idealised knight of France, Amadis de
Jocelin. She soon learned that he was a somewhat famous
personage,--famous for his genius, his scorn of accepted rules,
and his contempt for all "puffery," push and patronage, as well as
for his brusquerie in society and carelessness of conventions. She
also heard that his works had been rejected twice by the Royal
Academy Council, a reason he deemed all-sufficient for never
appealing to that exclusive school of favouritism again,--while
everything he chose to send was eagerly accepted by the French
Salon, and purchased as soon as exhibited. His name had begun to
stand very high--and his original character and personality made
him somewhat of a curiosity among men--one more feared than
favoured. He took a certain pleasure in analysing his own
disposition for the benefit of any of his acquaintances who chose