hour. His father was, as might be expected, seriously disappointed and
amazed at the strange direction taken by the boy's inclinations. No one
(including Valentine himself) could ever trace them back to any
recognizable source; but everyone could observe plainly enough that
there was no hope of successfully opposing them by fair means of any
kind. Seeing this, old Mr. Blyth, like a wise man, at last made a
virtue of necessity; and, giving way to his son, entered him, under
strong commercial protest, as a student in the Schools of the Royal
Academy.

Here Valentine remained, working industriously, until his twenty-first
birthday. On that occasion, Mr. Blyth had a little serious talk with
him about his prospects in life. In the course of this conversation,
the young man was informed that a rich merchant-uncle was ready to take
him into partnership; and that his father was equally ready to start
him in business with his whole share, as one of three children, in the
comfortable inheritance acquired for the family by the well-known City
house of Blyth and Company. If Valentine consented to this arrangement,
his fortune was secured, and he might ride in his carriage before he
was thirty. If, on the other hand, he really chose to fling away a
fortune, he should not be pinched for means to carry on his studies as
a painter. The interest of his inheritance on his father's death,
should be paid quarterly to him during his father's lifetime: the
annual independence thus secured to the young artist, under any
circumstances, being calculated as amounting to a little over four
hundred pounds a year.

Valentine was not deficient in gratitude. He took a day to consider
what he should do, though his mind was quite made up about his choice
beforehand; and then persisted in his first determination; throwing