The Mankato free press., 1903-08-07

Shall not know her for whom Strove.
Till she reach me forth her hand,
Saying, "Nho but have the right?"
| And out of a troubled night
| Shall draw me safe to the land.
The Widower.
"A R AISLE, come to bed"
| M ITS so'hot I can't sleep.
| IVA Don't worry"
Maisie put her elbows
| on the window sill and looked at the
moonlight ON the straight, poplar
| hanked road. Summer had come upon
| Vitry-sur-Marne and parched it to the
bone. The grass was dry burned in the
meadows, the clay by the bank of the
river was caked to brick, the roadside
| flowers were long since dead and the
roses in the garden hung withered on
their stalks. The heat in the little low
bedroom under the caves was almost
| intolerable. The very moonlight on the
wall of Kami's studio across the road
seemed to make the night hotter, and
the shadow Of the big bell handle by
the closed gate cast bar of inky
black that caught Maisie's eye and an
noyed her.
"Horrid thing! It should be all
| white" she murmured. "And the gate
isn't In the middle of the wall, either.
l never noticed that before"
Maisie was hard to please at that
hour First, the heat of the past few
| weeks had worn her down; secondly,
her work and particularly the study of
a femaie head intended to represent
the Meiancolia and not finished in time
for the salon was unsatisfactory; third
ly, Kan, had said as much two days
before; fourthly, but SO completely
fourthly that it was hardly worth
thinking about, Dick, her property, had
not written to her for more than six
weeks. She was angry with the heat,
! with kami and with her work, but she
was exceedingly angry with Dick.
She had written to him three times,
each time proposing a fresh treatment
of her Aelancolia. Dick had taken no
notice of these communications. She
had resol-@l to write no more. When
she retJ:.,-d to England in the autumn
for Eer pride's sake she could not re-
turn eaIlier-she would speak to him.
She missed the Sunday afternoon. con-
ferenceS more than she cared to admit.
All that KaRi said was, "Continuez,
madsmoiselle, continuez toujours," and
he had been repeating his wearisome
counsel through the hot summer exact
ly like a cicala-an old gray cicala in
black alpaca coat, white trousers and
huge felt hat.
But Dick had tramped masterfully
up and down her little studio north Of
the cool green London park and had
said things ten times worse than "con-
tinuez" before he snatched the brush
out of her hand and showed her where
her error lay His last letter, Maisie
remembered, contained some trivial
advice about not sketching in the sun
or drinking water at wayside farm
houses. and he had said that not once,
but three times, as if he did not know
that Maisie could take care of herself.
But what was he doing that he could
voices in the road made her lean from
the window. A cavalryman of the little
garrison in the town was talking to
Kami's cook. The moonlight glittered
on the scabbard of his saber, which he
was holding in his hand lest it should
clank inopportunely. The cooks cap
cast deep shadows on her face, which
his arm round her waist, and there fol-
lowed the sound of a kiss.
"Faughw said Maisie, stepping back.
"What's that?' said the red haired
girl, who was tossing uneasily outside
her beG
"Only a conscript kissing the cook"
said Maisie. "They've gone away
now" She leaned out of the window
again and put a shawl over her night
| gown to guard against chills. There
was very small night breeze abroad
| and sun baked rose below nodded it's
head as one who knew unutterable Sc
crets. Was it possible that Dick should
his own and descend to the degrada
| ton of Suzanne and the conscript? He
could not. The rose nodded its head
and one leaf Herewith. 1t looked like
naughty little devil scratching its
ear Dick could not, "because," thought
| Maisie, "he is mine-mine-mine. He
| said he was. I'm sure I don't care
| what he does. 1t will only spoil his
| work if he does, and it will spoil mine
too"
The rose continued to nod in the fu-
| tile way peculiar to flowers. There was
no earthly reason why Dick should not
disport himself as he chose, except that
he was called by Providence, which
was Maisie, to assist Maisie in her
work And her work was the prepara-
ton of pictures that went sometimes
to English provincial exhibitions, as
the notices in the scrapbook proved,
and were invariably rejected by the
salon when Kami was plagued into al
lowing her to send them up. Her work
in the future, it seemed, would be the
preparation Of pictures on exactly SINH
lar lines which would be rejected in
exactly the same way.
The red haired girl thrashed distress
fully across the sheets. "It's too hot to
Sleep" she moaned, and the Interrupt
ton Jared
Exactly the same way. Then she
would divide her years between the
! little studio in England and Kamfs
big studio at Vitry Marne. No, she
would go to another master. who
J should force her into the success thai
was her right if patient toll and des
perate endeayor gave one right tc
/ anything Dick had told her that he
had worked ten years to understand
h q -ad 10, ,,.e.