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LAU GHING TORSO up and we saw that it was a black female coat with a cape attached, very fashionable at the moment. Charley said, " You can have it if you give me a picture in return/3 and I said, "All right!95 I rather regretted it afterwards, as Charley came to my place and chose a very nice oil-painting. He had paintings by half the well-known artists in Paris, which he had wangled one way and another. There was a story of a very famous painter wrho was a ter- rible drunkard. His pictures are now worth thousands of francs. He will give them away if he is not prevented from doing so. He lives in Montmartre with his Mother and his stepfather. He is one of those unfortunate people who, like my Australian soldier, simply cannot drink a drop, without having to continue. A friend of mine was at his house one evening and Charley came in. She noticed that his pockets rather bulged. He went out of the room and then came back. Presently loud shrieks were heard. These were from the unfortunate painter who, although a man of nearly fifty, was being unmercifully beaten by his stepfather for having exchanged a picture for a bottle of drink. This poor painter had a miserable life. One night he was found by Rubezack, wandering in the Rue de Vaugirard, in the pouring rain terribly drunk with carpet slippers on and no hat or coat. Rub&zack, who was quite penniless, led him to the Rotonde in the hopes that he would find a picture-dealer or some kind person to pay the taxi to Montmartre. Several dealers refused, although they had made fortunes put of his pictures. Finally a collection was 296