The Adventures of a Modest Man

all, she sat looking upward until his step on som

ing with delicate limbs parallel, arms extended, palms outward. The head was lift

el?" she aske

other." And he placed on a table the second figure, a smooth, youthful, sensuou

she inquire

t two sketches, done without a model,

t him, not c

hese," he stammered. "Didn't you un

read. She turned, laid one small hand on the back of

ee beside her. "I am so sorry. Try to reason a little. You-you must know I meant no offense-that I never could wish to offend you. Look

er face sti

d?" he pleaded, "tha

. Let

u forgi

-y

cannot-

e broke down, sobbing in the chair,

o chance for him in the world, no hope of all he had dared to believe in, no future. Watching her he felt his own c

for the moment f

. You know I did not mean to hurt you; I know tha

," she

oor devil of a sculptor, carried away by the glamour of a chance for better fortune that seem

wet eyed, ch

t of myself; and you don't understand! Do you think I w

oward the door. She crossed the threshold, turned a

that night, and, after that, da

east; for in the long hours, lying amid the fragments of her shattered dreams, t

d try to forget. But she could not; she could not leave, she could not forget, she

g, her body nothing, that the cost was nothing, compared to the terrible importance of his necessi

the aid she withheld. Sometimes she passed hours on her knees, tearless, wordless; sometimes sheer

l remained clear; their terrible beauty haunted her. Night after night, rigid on her bed's edge, she stretched her bared,

silence of the house, of her room, the

fulness which fled before her like her shadow. And at the edge of noon she found herself-where she k

d, smiling sometimes, but always very gentle; the girl flus

t be executed in sections, then set together limb by limb, for there were

pain," said the gir

t, another thing; it

y, and a little more." S

hen could she come for th

s read

e figure stood like this," and, after a pause, "the other this way.... If

lptor

, trembling in every nerv

vacation during the summer. Now her vacation, which she requested for December, lasted ten days; and at the end of it h

knelt, crying, be

s Eve, she knelt, crying, before two pedestals fr

ding-sheets-unstained cerements, sealing beneath their folds her dead pride, dead hope-all

ready; her small account settled. With strangely weak and

r with a silent little inclination of her head. But, although she had had no speech with him, she had learned tha

o the snowy darkness, drawing on her gloves and but

tor came to

mas Eve"-taking the coin irresolutely,

ed, fumbling in the pocket

es ye f'r to know that he do be lavin' the house"-the old man moistened his lips in an effort to remember wit

shook h

k. Say-from me-God bless him.... Will y

ll, M

handkerchief hastily, and he

t is all," s

e janitor was holdin

nt f'r to see Misther Landon, I

a shiver pa

e re?ntered her room, held the envelope a moment clos

ffer you a little gift at Christmastide-not in reparation, for I meant no injury-bu

t and soul crying out for him. Then the memory of what was awaiting him in his studio cho

too early for him; it must be the expressman for

but Landon had seen his letter in her

ng him, too, as he laid his gift on the ba

n a colorless voice; but she c

y Christmas," he w

peak, lifted her slim hand to stay him.

tween her world and his she heard his voice bridging it: "I love you-I love you dearly.... Once more I am the beggar-a begga

his eyes; his hands

love me?"

d the fragrant mouth assent

her own, from very far away, her

ave dreamed so long-so

both hands against his coat a

hisp

ess of you, too! I could not put it from me; I knew that night that I loved you-and to-day

hat of my gift-my twin gifts-there, in your

are

er it had been for me to die than to

Williams," I

y revery, mentally repolishing the carefully consi

lli

ha

e living i

ho

hat girl, dammit!

se. Children-bunches

lli

ha

he so

. "Don't bother me now; I've g