The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1907-09-11


and not his maiden aunts, and II
Aunt Marjorie and Aunt Le.tia can
not reconcile themselves &c my wife
the loss will certainly be theirs
Fancy not being able to reconcile
yourself to Marie! The very idea is
preposterous. Aunt let.ie says that
for an artist to marry his model is
the worst of bad taste. That, of
course, depends a good deal upon the
model, and Marie is-well, Marie.
After winning the statuary prize at
the Ecole des Arts, | suppose | may
fairly call myself an artist, but I'm
not at all obliged to work for money,
and If | choose | can spend the re-
mainder of my life in making statu
cites of Marie and filling every room
in the house with them, and not at
all bad idea.
What wonderful difference a
woman does make to room. I
mean, of course, Marie. | always
thought my ateler in the Latin Quar-
ter at Paris was the dreariest, din
giest den under heaven, until Marie
came. / noticed a difference in the
place before she had been sitting for
her first hour, and after she had gone
everything got bit gray, and dingy
again, and then | knew what it was.
The skull which l had bought for
anatomical purposes was more irri-
tating in it's manner than l had ever
known it before, and as for the suit
of Crusader chain armor, which
had purchased because it was of no
earthly use to me, | simply lost pa
thence with it altogether and kicked
1t into corner of the room. I could
not be really friendly with either of
them any more.
/ was doing a head of Athene, and
the moment saw Marie ! knew had
found what | wanted. | didn't come
across her in the ordinary way.
mean she didn't come to my studio
asking for work. She didn't pose
very often, and then only to the best
men. She happened to bring up
letter from the concierge, and when
she saw my Athene through the half
open door she came right in to look
at it. She was always like that, Just
as frank and comradely as possible,
and with wonderful little wise way
about her. / tell you there wasn't a
student in the neighborhood who
would have dared to deny her the
respect due to his own sister. 1t
never seemed to occur to her that she
was as beautiful as the sunrise, and
that art students have way of their
own in such matters. She stood up
on her own level, and it just never
entered into her head that others
might not stand quite so high. Any
way, they had to, pull up to 1t when
she was around. And so she came
right into my room and put her head
upon one side and her hands behind
her. with her little white arms bare
to the elbow, and looked at my
Athene. Then she gave a little ec-
static jump, and made the most de-
licious tiny moue you can imagine.
"Ah, Monsieur Marvin" she said,
but that will be charming. Tell
me, monsieur, is it not wonderful to
think that in the so rough clay one
can hide away ones own beautiful
fancy and then work and work until
1t comes to the surface? 1t is to Gre
ate with Just one thought, is it not,
monsieur"
Now this was more than I de-
served, because ! had only done the
first rough modelling, but l veritably
believe the little witch could see an
artists ideal behind the faulty ex-
preston. ] know she put new heart
into young Roland upstairs, whose
conceptions were sublime. and that
was all there was to it until she
made him believe in himself. She
was standing right in front of me
when she made this pretty little
speech, and there was something in
the turn of her head that showed me
Just like an inspiration what Athene
ought to look like, although, of
course, in reality Athene wasn't half
80 beautiful-couldn't possibly have
been. 'Mademoiselle," l said, "if
you would sit for me we would have
an Athene hors de concurrence.
Otherwise fear the ideal will remain
hidden away in the clay like dia-
mond in the mine, and it will never
see the light at all"
She looked at me a little doubtful
ly, gave me most bewitching little
courtesy, shook her black hair back
from her forehead, where it had a
habit of falling in the most adorable
confusion, and jumped like bird on
to the stool. Monsieur does me too
much honor" she said.
And that is how Marie came to sit
for me. How she did brighten up the
old studio, to be sure. Even when
she was not there l could remember
that she had been there, and l could
count the hours until she would come
again. Only to fancy that she was
sitting there filled the room with a
radiance. and even took pity ON the
poor old skull and restored him to
Ms shelf. SO that he might partiei-