Gray youth

night street-markets and at Bank Holiday merry-go-rounds and cocoanut-shies; and, of course, when Van Eeden on Dreams came up for discussion, or Galton on Heredity, or Pater on th

; but she was entirely uninterested in them otherwise. Of all the fine things Cosimo had done in the past, she thought he had done nothing finer nor more full of profound meaning than when he had once given a crossing-sweeper a shilling, taken the broom from his hand, and for an hour swept the crossi

d her half-dozen guests troop

re--" they annou

since we've se

are

Life an

on't suppose you know him ..

from here in the day-time

gs down ... mind

they stood talking, laughing and straightening their hair. Amory asked Cosimo for a matc

or four broke out at once;

N

nful to spoil

round the fire-the f

to

ainst your kn

ndkerchief in my pocket!

, Amo

propping up Laura Beamish, Katie Deedes and Mr. Bielby on chairs, Dickie Lemesurier with the firelight shin

Wyron broke rapturously out,

" said Laura Beamish, peeri

but isn't it

n plate with the or

magnif

make an asto

ad applied his or her adjective to Amory's appea

ustrated journalism and statelily inclined her head when the awful Mr. Wellcome had offered her a liqueur-glass

ejaculated. If Dorothy hadn't told, t

s huge black-coffee-coloured

" Amory announced, w

ted dramati

he could always

l me! Do you think--" a short

led Laura Beamish. It bore an expr

!" Cosimo i

o; Jellies (so called because she worked at the Jelly Factory acros

hether he's 'in' or

everal voices said at once; and Amory's prett

w those wooden hangers they hang coats on?-well, he'd not had time to remove the hanger before a policeman had collared him, and there he had been, swearing the coat was his, with the wire hook sticking up at the back of his neck! Fancy-just fancy!-the psychological

" Amory rippled

ut Mrs. 'Ill and the

s in the World's End Passage, next door to a fried fish shop, and there are twenty babies, and the woman at the fried fish shop k

t, Amory-tell him about t

her plate, and she said she felt towards them just as if they were her own! Hens and babies-Figurez vous!-And there was always a christening party or something at the Creek, to which the hens went too, and-(th

Ill-he hasn't he

as afraid of being caught, so he called himself Hill. But (here's Westermarck for you!) when his first baby was going to be born his conscience seems to have been troubled (it would make a lovely psychological story, Mrs. 'Ill with the child and M

an undeniable gift for such narrations. Laura Beamish, who tried to cap her with some story of a Charing Cross flower-girl and a black eye, fell by comparison quite flat; and even Katie Deedes's tale of her moth

ny stories about Mr. W

e step was taken. The Fabian Nursery and the S.D.F. came all in the stride.... The space within the fender became half full of banana-sk

les and over the back of his soft grey collar; Amory had made at one time and another a dozen drawings of his splendid throat; she hoped to make a dozen more. She was very proud of having Cosimo for a friend. He set down appearances at their proper value, no more. He was quite free from those stupid old-fashioned prejudices that, in so arrogantly setting apart certain subjects as undiscussable between young men and young women, ha

Amory had a little disregarded the conversation. She was

Dickie, and just gre

, peering critically over her hand again as she strove

Walter Wyron sugg

wn your hair!" the

ed, "Oh yes, Amory!" and took a fresh place by her feet. "With the firelight through it it should be just unbelievable!" he cried excitedl

ute-it wants just one touch-

mory was as hidden by it as a we

conviction. "Amory, you really must paint yourself so-none

winbu

udelai

Verl

d for some mom

then, and carnations for

's a tea

, to go wit

the Catalogues, don't they, Dot? Mus

thyst ea

pea

y ame

y pea

are obviously

t were emeralds made for if th

Amory turning to Cosimo again, and Walter and the

him he turned up his fine face so that she saw it upside down. When Cosimo had removed into his studio near the Vestry Hall seven or eight months ago, Amory had spent whole days with him, reading aloud passages from one or ot

ou ought to be able to make this place perfectly ri

out muslin, but Cosimo shook his handsome tendrilled head peremptorily. He l

dth, all colours; that's your stuff! Oh, decidedly!... Then stencil it-something like Dickie's yoke there, only a broader treatment, of course-and there you are! They'll take down and put up again

sympathetic. Amory could have hugged him, there was so little of the mere superior blatant male about him.... They p

n "just brought along," and had discovered that he was still at t

still just the same as ever,

I'd almost forgotten poor old Jowett! Immortelle's his

udents had passed, all so different and all so exactly alike, that he had been driven to

low his game. He used to get off better ones than tha

asking me if I couldn't sew," Dickie Lemesuri

t was worth the time I'd spent on it," Walter chuckled. "The joke is that po

dously of Amory herself!" sa

"I suppose we ought to hide our abashed heads r

l surv

ar u

py in our i

ll the world must

know you're the on

... But it's only

ctly desc

e immortelle

lay in its case in the window-seat. Katie Deedes, who always kept a sort of tally of the good thi

n jumped up to get Laura's instrument. It had long, many-coloured streamers of ribbon, which Walter disposed li

eroses' and 'The Clouded Yellow Butterfly,' please!-Do stop wriggling against my k

ming as if a light and fluty sound planed

. "Please, that verse again

e of ribbon round his

dies know he

a sa

ry murmured, her

er on the floor with her right; and "Amory's going to do it!" the whisper went softly round.... Amory felt that she really must "do" it. It ought to "come" beautifully-Laura with the guitar and the coloured streamers, so-Walter's thin face at its most pensive, so-Katie Deedes in that adorable curled-up pose at Laura's feet, with the jewel of fire-light on her shoe-buckle and her face quite lost in the shadow, so-and perhaps when she came to paint it, she would get Cosimo to stand quite behind, where the moonlight on the window-sill was

ittle shriek: "No-not that frrrightful one out of Myers, Amory!"... But Amory told it, and Katie Deedes remembered the dark stairs, and said that she would never dare to go down them.... So by and by Cosimo got up and lighted the two candles, and the terrors receded as the flames crept up, and Laura was persuaded to sing just one more song and then (she said) she really must go-her people would be wondering whatever had become of her. But Walter said that that was all right: he'd see her home. And Mr. Bielby would go along with Katie and Dorothy, who went together, and of course

ppose?" Cosimo

!" said

r faces towards

dens that Amory suddenly said, with a

ckly; that was the wonderful thing about C

three times, and tha

He knew that it would be a pleasure to Amory to defen

ere's that dreadful job of hers, but she does k

remarked, as if true artists had sorrows enough of their ow

ried about h

what I always find so fine about you. The stronger a

is a Law?" Amory

t? Just look a

eem to be a Law. She had suspected it before, but never, never had it been made quite so clear to her.

ed her walk