From a Bench in Our Square

ly enough to keep her head above the high tide of Fifth Avenue prices. As to idleness, she scorned the charge. Had she not, throughout the war, performed prodigious feats of committee work, all o

anting to look again, and not a

ateway from the upper strata to our humbler domain, who-Pagan that she is!-indiscriminately accepts all things beautiful simply for their beauty. Having arrived, Miss Holland proceeded to organize us with all the energy of high-blooded sweet-and-twenty and all the imperiousness of confident wealth and beauty. She organized an evening sewing-circle for women whose eyelids would not stay open after their long day's work. She formed cultural improvement classes for such as Leon Coventry, the printer, who knows half the literatures of the world, and

il the day when she clashed her lath-and-tinsel sword of theory against the tempered steel of the Little Red Doctor

e a soldier. "Tell m

olunteer service, she turned shining eyes upon him. "I've ne

tle Red Doctor. "I'll send for you

she, and they sh

strations, and even those of us who least approved her activitie

d in the Bonnie Lassie's front window, was maturing some new and benign outrag

n making queer mark

ick Banta. He's

ney head like an amiable lion; quite a

make all

h other. At least the queer man i

ly an academic discu

the yo

what might have

? What did

he loo

"It's a peculiar face. Awfully interesting, though. He's qu

the Bonnie Lassie with a hal

ally well-meaning soul. "Would it be a case where I could help? I'd

t sincere and direct, however much she may play her trickerie

I doubt whether he'd hav

amateur missionary hopefully. "Is he

e quality. "Julien Tenney isn't exactly a pauper. He just think

ught he

ly. "Five years ago I believe he had the makings of

s on sidewal

Commerci

d that sort

d young super-Americans who appear in the advertisements, riding in super-ca

o," said the

raws

t you call p

e k

e it pays jus

ssie evasively, "he sticks to

going to

Bonnie Lassie wickedly. "I'll call him in for you to look ove

spite his smeary garb of the working artist. His presentation to Miss H

sked Julien, st

a gilded butter

she doin

oo

n pained tones. "Ha

ural

anthr

or

't no sich

She's a pat

ow

going to pat

first. How do I qu

ered you a

s she get

p implement from the left eye of a stoi

s fair?" demanded t

t him. "Do you or do you not," she challenged, "invade ou

only extr

ment in Gramercy Park, when you are not down her

ten, I won't stand for

I keep my room here bec

ork in

ak his foolish old heart if you left him

an awkward child. "Did you tell all

nd barely sufficient expedient to keep the wolf from the d

e queried wit

great p

ow, I've meant all along, as

ncerned, "and you know; but time flies and hell is paved with good intentions, and if yo

'd let me paint her

she had planned it from the moment when she had caught the flash of startled surprise and wonder in his eyes, as they first rested on Bobbie Holland. Here, she had guessed, might be the age

cause I'm a littl

it, since you've t

such a model as she i

retty?" inquired the s

tess's smile he broke off. "You'll admit it's a well-model

"She's a devastating whirlwind, that child, and she comes down here pa

ing to play

by arduous pot-boiling? You won't have to play a part as far as the pot-boiling goes," added his monitress viciously. "Only, don't let her know t

t," retorted the

r. I'll bring her around to see you and y

k and cleanly poverty. (Yes, I was there to see; the Bonnie Lassie had taken me along to make up that first party.) Having done the honors, Julien dropped into the background, and presently was curled up over a drawing-board, sketching eagerly while the Bonnie Lassie and I held the doer of good deeds in talk. Now the shrewd and abl

is an adequate critic. Miss Holland contemplated what was a v

s pleased to say. "Wou

d be exactly-" A stern

efusal. He swallowed t

little?" asked the visit

that with a little crayoning and retouching he

icately dropped a

nd time to let me try

?" she said doubtful

put in the crafty Bonnie Lassie. "It

imself to the utmost to keep her mind at play, and, as I can vouch who helped train him, there are few men of his age who can be as absorbing a companion as Julien when he chooses to exert his charm. All the time, he was working with a passionate intensity on the portrait; letting everything else go; tossing aside the most remunerative offers; leaving his mail unopened; throwing himself intensely, rec

it of the most punctilious and rigid honor, the gift, perhaps, of some forgotten ancestry. More and more, as the intimacy grew, he deserted his uptown haunts and stuck to the attic studio above the rooms where, in the dawning days of prosperity, he had installed Peter Quick Banta in the effete and scandalous luxury of two rooms, a bath, and a gas stove. Yet the pict

y in the sculptress's studio; "but soone

Bonnie Lassie, not lo

ll go

trait will be finishe

That'll be

ie did look up. Immediate

l have to go away

returned he in

e outset, 'Dangerou

rsonality, I could judge only as I saw them occasionally together, she lustrous and exotic as a buddi

ernoon as Julien was taking the patroness of Art over to where her car wait

your age, Dominie," said th

serious," I

is an adorable little p

ll enough to have discov

ignoring the question, "she

to escape being bored

won't sp

doesn't appear

t. Julien is doing her a lot of good. Already she's far

, if I may so express m

r," she reproved. "However, the big idea is that Jul

effect that the experience is likely to cost him pre

ular sphinx," was all t

llowship between painter and paintee. That nourished along, and one day a vagrant wind brought in the dangerous element of historical personalities. Th

r qu'on est bie

that there?"

s ago. And meant

come to kno

rench

freely. "I wouldn't have thought"-she turned her softly bri

rejoinder. "But ne

em to know so many things-w

thing." (Ungrateful young scoundrel, so to describe my two-h

s that to a man, deep has begun to call to deep. (The Bonnie L

s of Art, on leaving Jul

st casual manner she could co

bod

ean," pleaded the

ed the Bonnie Lassie, quite pleased with her ne

e clever. Be ni

feeling perverse that day. "You want me to define his social status for you and tell you

l tones. "I've never known any one with more instin

raining," bragged the Bonnie L

now something of

with the manners of a preux chevalier. Anyway, he never swal

uzzling," la

the bud of your mind? You're n

arded. "I don't know what I'm going to do with him," said she with a

id the Bon

inued sc