The gesture was
quite enough for her. She understood at once that they were going
together to see Mrs. Blyth.
"Whether Zack really turns out a painter or not," said Valentine to
himself, as the door closed on the two young people, "I believe I have
hit on the best plan that ever was devised for keeping him steady. As
long as he comes to me regularly, he can't break out at night, and get
into mischief. Upon my word, the more I think of that notion of mine
the better I like it. I shouldn't at all wonder if my evening Academy
doesn't end in working the reformation of Zack!"
When Mr. Blyth pronounced those last words, if he could only have
looked a little way into the future--if he could only have suspected
how strangely the home-interests dearest to his heart were connected
with his success in working the reformation of Zack--the smile which
was now on his face would have left it in a moment; and, for the first
time in his life, he would have sat before one of his own pictures in
the character of an unhappy man.
CHAPTER IX.
THE TRIBULATIONS OF ZACK.
A week elapsed before Mrs. Blyth's wavering health permitted her
husband to open the sittings of his evening drawing-academy in the
invalid room.
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