The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-06-24
AN ARTISTS MODEL.

work at the time, and his model was
stranger to me. I sat smoking and watch
ing him, OF, to be candid, her, for half an
hour Then her time was up, and she left
for dinner or something.
Where did you pick her up, Danvers2'
ION the boat coming over from Calais.
How do you like herr
ooh, she's superb-simply superb, for
your work, but-er''=
" Exactly. She doesn' It look like model,
does she9 But I don't see why there
shouldn't be lady nodels-refned and that
sort of thing. Anyhow, you know me well
enough to be sure she'll come to no harm
here. -
"H'm; no, of course. WHAT'S the story,
old man?''
q don't altogether know, and, anyhow,
I don It know whether I m justified in tell
ing you
"Ohl Well, of course, if''-
f'Now, for heavens sake, don't make
fuss had no sleep last night, and I IA
shaxy. First, I believe she is a relation
less sort of orphan Of fairly decent parents.
Then, I believe, she is engaged to an artist
somewhere this side Of the Pyrenees, who
is also relationless. He went blind few
months back. Her whole soul is wrapped
up in him. She could think Of no other
means Of making money, SO she came over
here, where she knows no one, and deter
mined to be a model Only for certain
work, you understand high class model.
She has found one or Two men like me, to
whom her services are valuable, and now
she's as happy as 4 sandBoy, with the
thought OF bringing her blind painter god
over some time next month as her hus-
band. He'll be the advising partner, I sup
pose, and she IL earn the money.
'fOh, well, she certainly is the''-
fHushl Here she comes.
So I left then and started on my annual
trip to the south next day.
Three months afterward I walked into
Danvers' studio again and fairly gasped
when I looked at his model 1t was the
same girl, and Danvers was at the same
kind Of work, but-well, she LETT the room
for something after bit, and looked at
Dahvers.
is she in training for pose as dying
ascetic9 What in tie world have you been
doing with her, Danvers? What the deuce
good can she be in your work nOw2 Cad
man, the girls dyingr'
Yes, I know" said Danvers, scraping
his palette savagely. s'Beastly nuisance,
isn't it2 I don't know what the devil to
make Of it. "
oven, but what's the mean, howl
'fYou remember the blind painter god
chap"
yes"
''weD, he fell into some beastly lake on
the day before they were to have been mar
ried and was drowned. She's been getting
a little bit more like-that, every day since
She doesn't sleep and she doesn' t eat. She
just does exactly what she's told. She's
lay figure, and Of a skeleton at that. Best
model I ever had too. Isn't it sickeningP''
'H'ml And don't suppose it's exactly
cheerful for her F"
well, Of course As a matter of fact
I'm beastly sorry for her. I rather like the
CHI
man do?'
What she wants old man. is simply a
new interest of some kind. She's simply
dying for want of some interest in living.
That blind chap represented all the beauty
in her life. He's gone. She must be made
to see some other kind of beauty"
"H'ml And you think that would cure
herr"
Certain %
All, we'll I must get to work, old
eyes. Goodby.'
Now, for a good time dropped into
Danvers' studio pretty nearly every day,
and T. N not joking when say I watched
the reincarnation of that alphabetically,
anyhow. Then, just as I was getting in
terested, and-well, it was a weirdly beau
tiful process had to start on that wretch
ed South American expedition.
That occupied almost a year, as the
members Of the party are not likely to for
get, and then we were landed in London,
and the hall porter refused to admit me at
my own club. However, I soon raised
some money, and dropped back into the old
life, and then I went out to St. Johns
Wood to look up Danvers.
Miss Retours-that was her name=was
still there, and found she never went in
to any other studio. She gravely excused
herself from sitting for me, and as she did
so she looked across at Danvers-gOod
LOrdl and he was whistling a vile thing
from q pantomime. But she was in per
feet health and a poem of southern Eu-
rOpean beauty. Only when she looked at
me she didn't see me, only through me
to Danvers. When she looked st
him, her great, big, fine, forest Dyes shone
and glistened-a mixture of Madonna and
Bacchante. And he whistled that afro
ciOus patter song.
How did you do it, Danvers2'' asked
when she went out How did you give
her the new interest"
"Who? Adile2 Oh, bless you, she's
been happy as possible for ever so long
Forgotten all about the blind chap, fancy
In fact, I sometimes think she must be a
bit sentimentally inclined about some 9th
er fellow "
Some other fellowi yes How did
you do its''
4-I1 me So well EestA4y - bIl1A
talked an awful lot of rot about poetry and
art, and-oh, yesl I remember painted a
little ideal paradise for her-somewhere in
the Mediterranean, think it was That
she seemed to catch on to wonderfully. All
talk, you know. " All talk And l. who
might have done this thing, was fooling
about in South America.
Yes, it's evidently given her a new IN
5erest in life I suppose it began about the
rV rrraa
" About then, I think. ANYHOW, she's
IS right as possible now. A bit pensive at
times, but plastic rs wax, and lights up
Mt q word As a woman, I con
Tess she rather bores me now, but she's a
larfect model. my boy. an absolutely nar-