The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-07-31
THE LIGHT
THAT FAILED
By RudYard kipling

nAn1AAAnD
now! BY the way, what do you think
Of it, Bess?"
The girl was biting her lips. She
loathed Torpenhow because he had
taken no notice of her.
81 think it's just the horrideSt, beast
Hest thing l ever saw" she answered,
and turned away.
"More than you will be of that way
Of thinking, young woman. Dick,
there's sort of murderous viperine
suggestion in the poise of the head that
I don't understand" said Torpenhow.
'HThat's trick work." said Dick, chuc
king with delight at being completely
understood. Il couldn't resist one little
bit of sheer Swagger. It's French
trick, and you wouldn't understand.
But it's got at by Slowing round the
head trifle and tiny, tiny foreshort-
ening of one side of the face from the
angle of the chin to the top of the left
ear That and deepening the shadow
under the lobe of the ear. 1t was fla
grant trick work; but, having the no
ton fixed, | felt entitled to play with
it. oh, you beauty!'
''Amen! She is beauty. 1 can feel
it."
$50 will every man who has any sor-
row of his own" said Dick, slapping
his thigh. HE shall see his trouble
there, and, by the Lord Harry, just
when he's feeling properly sorry for
tvs ho -l.,I Ii Il
and laugh, as she is laughing I've put
the life of my heart and the light of my
eyes into her, and / don't care what
comes. I'm tired-awfully
tired. l think I'll get to sleep. Take
away the whisky. 1t has served its
turn. Oh, give Bessie thirty-siX quid
and three over for luck. Cover the pic
ture"
He was asleep in the long chair. his
face white and haggard, almost before
he had finished the sentence Bessie
tried to take Torpenhow's hand.
"Aren't you never going to speak to me
any more?" she said, but TorpenhOw
was looking at Dick.
What a stock of vanity the man
has! I'll take him in hand tomorrow
and make much of him. He deserves
it Eth? What was that, Bess?"
Nothing. I'll put things tidy here
little, and then I'll go. You couldn't
give me that three months pay now,
could you? He said you were to-"
Torpenhow gave her a check and
went to his own rooms. Bessie faith
fully tidied up the studio set the door
ajar for fight, emptied half a bottle of
turpentine on a buster and begaE to
scrub the face of the Melancolia
viciously. The paint did not smudge
quickly enough. She took palette
knife and scraped. following each
stroke with the wet buster. In five min
utes the picture was a formless, SCARED
muddle of colors. She threw the paint
stained buster into the studio stove.
stuck out her tongue at the sleeper and
whispered, "Bilked"' as she turned to
run down the staircase She would
never see Torpenhow any more, but
she had at least done harm to the man
who had come between her and her
desire and who used to make fun Of
her. Cashing the check was the very
cream of the jest to Bessie. Then
the little privateer sailed across the
Thames to be swallowed up in the
gray wilderness of South-the-water.
Dick slept till late in the evening,
when Torpenhow dragged him off to
bed. His eyes were as bright as his
voice was hoarse. Lets have another
look at the picture" he said as insist
emily as a child.
-go-to--bed, said Torpenhow.
"You aren't at all we'll, though you
mayn't know it. You're as jumpy as a
cat"
81 reform tomorrow. Good night"
AS he passed through the studio Tor
penhow lifted the cloth above the pic
ture and almost betrayed himself by
outcries: Wiped out! Scraped out,
and turped out! If Dick knows this
tonight, he'll go perfectly mad. He's
on the verge of the jumps as it is.
That's Bess-the little fiend! Only a
woman could have done that. with the
ink not dry on the cheek too Dick
will be raving mad tomorrow. 1t was
all my fault for trying to help gutter
devils. Oh, my poor Dick, the Lord is
hitting you very hard!'
Dick could not sleep that night, part
ly for pure joy and partly because the
well known Catherine wheels inside
his eyes had given place to cracking
volcanoes of many colored fires.
Spout away" he said aloud. 1--WE
done my work. and now you can do
what you please" He lay still, star
ing at the ceiling. the long pent up
delirium of drink in his veins, his brain
On fire with racing thoughts that would
not stay to be considered, and his
hands crisped and dry.
He had just discovered that he was
painting the face of the Melancolia on
revolving dome ribbed with millions
Of lights. and that all his wondrous
thoughts stood embodied hundreds of
feet below his tiny swinging plank,
shouting together in his honor, when
something cracked inside his temples
like an oyerstrained bowstring, the
glittering dome broke inward, and he
was alone in the thick night.
"Pll go to sleep. The rooms very
dark. Let's light lamp and see how
the Melancolia looks. There ought to
have been moon I"