The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-09-11
TIE EVENING STORY
High Art and Hairpins.

square. lie neld the uoo1 mail DpCA
and Helene paused with one foot on
the narrow flight of stairs leading TO
the studio. She was frankly dlsap-
pointed. To have come so far for
nothing. She hesitated, g1ancing back
doubtfuIly al the waiting cab.
Did he say when he would be
back ?'''
He not ever say when.' answered
the tailor positively, with sweeping
Hungarian assertion. sHe goes, then
he comes again. The door is open"
Then I think that I shall wait
Helene smiled with sudden pleasure
Il am sure he will come soon. He
must have expected me and left the
door OPEN
Sure he must" agreed the tailor
cordially. It was entirely probable II
| there had been the slightest chance OF
the descent of such a radiant young
i goddess as this he had no doubt but
what Mr.. Asquith lived in state OF
perpetual expectancy.
Helene went quickly upstairs. At
the second flight there was no landing
The top step ended abruptly at door
and the ceiling sloped in an angle to
meet the top of the door, She lifted
the old fashioned latch and looked IN,
her heart beating faster The studio
was empty.
For an instant she hesitated. She
I had never been in his studio It
seemed like an intrusion into some in
innate, personal part of his life in
which she with all his love for her had
no share
But because of that very privacy she
| wanted to intrude. She wanted to see
| how he lived, here in his own little
| den where he did his work, the work
that was to win him fame and fortune
! before the world, the den where he
| dreamed his dreams of the future IN
which she had so great a share.
She pushed the door farther open,
lifted her soft light skirt of silk higher
/ from the dusty stair and went into the
| studio, closing the door after her.
1t was a half ceiled attic. the near
| est approach to a Partisan atelier that
Asquith could ind in New York
There was a skylight in the high peak
ed roof. and wide, heavy cross beams
visible to the naked eye marked the
cave line
There was no burlap on the walls. no
Turkish rugs on the floor, no Dutch
shelves, nor stems, not even a tabour-
cite or samovar. 1t was simply work.
shop. A huge black walnut easel stood
crosswise, facing the north light. Be
fore it stood a rush bottomed chair, and
a low table Uttered with brushes, paint
| tubes and half mixed colors. A dingy
we'll daubed blouse lay over the back
of the chair and a pipe half smoked
rested on the easel ledge. Helene saw
it all at one glance and laughed. joy
ously, TREMENDOUSLY. She had never felt
herself so near to him as now. What
boy he was, after all, and how funny he
must look in that old blouse. She sat
down in the rush bottomed chair and
leaned her head back against the sleeve
of the blouse.
The walls were bare except for half
finished charcoal and pen ana INK
studies with here and there a water
color. The black and white studies
We're strange to her, but the landscapes
all bore the same struggling signature,
That was ali Not a single Venus, not
a cast of anything in sight. Asquith
was strictly a landscape artist and did
not paint the figure. Vaguely, she haa
been pleased that he did not. OF course,
if one were devoted to art, and must
paint the figure, then one must have
models, and models must necessarily De
beautiful and
Right there Helene's logic ended, but
it was sufficient She was glad that
Asquith was a landscape artist and dld
not require any model save old Mother
She drew off her long mousquetaire
gloves with a sigh of content. On the
third huger of her left hand sparkled
a diamond. It had been there over
as the gloves slipped to the floor, she
pressed the ring against her lips II
stood for so much, more than mere
engagement. They had known each 9TH
er a long time, two seasons, and She
had met him every winter at dinners and
swell dances. But this summer 1t mao
been different. Asquith SAID IL was 1ate-
Helene thought it the most deilclous DIT
of manoeuvering love had ever man
The rest of the family had gone to
Europe. Helene had hesitated- Be
| tween an automobile tour OF Brittany
and the Baltic coast and a quiet sum-
rner with her married cousin at Lareh-
mont, she had chosen Larchmont- AS
ouith was q, member of the yacht club
at Larchmont. Every morning from
the broad veranda at Bayvlew Coz
tage she could see him out on the
rocks. sketching before sunrise.
They were splendid rocks, huge,
gaunt. and gray, they rose raggedly
from the water at low toe, IKE the
bodies OF some submerged sea mon
4 gters. one could walk to them easily,
stepping over little pools left by the
tide and stray strands OF seaweeo-
And one morning Helene walked to
them slim and sweet, and 1reSh as the
dawn in her white dress and white low
shoes It was the shoes that did It.
i When Asquith turned at her call Tor
! help. he found her standing in one
of the pools, and the white shoes were
ruined.
Helene glanced up at the wall A
little watercolor hung near her, some
grew rocks and rose tinted sea, with
a bit of salt marsh in the foreground.
She smiled at it happily They had
sat I'D there together that morning,
and she had taken OIL heA SAlOSS anu
stockings, the precious, ruined shoes
and stockings. and that had been all
And Asquith had said It was fate.
She laughed again. He was such q
boy, after all. She stopped to pick up
her Gloves and stopped short to look
at something lying on the floor at her
feet. It was merely a hairpin. She
picked it up and looked at it curious
". Her own hairpins were brown tor
toise shell ones to match her hair This
4 I'M
wire affair, very cheap and very
dainty.
The laugh was gone from her lips
In it's place was a look Of wonderment