The Delta independent., 1915-07-09

lnfailing. source terribly sure and d.
rect evidence of guilt was being gath
ered For Wilfred Horton, who was
| demanding a day of reckoning and
spending great sums of money to get
it. there was a prospect of things do
ing.
| Adrienne Lescott was in Europe.
Soon she would return and Horton
meant to show that he had not buried
mis- talent.
! For eight months Samson's life had
run in the steady ascent of gradual
climbing, but in the four months from
the first of August to the first of De-
cember. the pace of his existence sud-
! 1enly quickened. He left off drawing
from plaster casts and went into q
life class.
| In this period Samson had his first
icquaintanceship with women, except
hose he had known from childhood
and his first acquaintance with the
men who were not of his own art
world
Tony Collasso was an Italian Illus
:rator who lodged and painted in
studio-apartments in Washington
| Square, South. His companions were
'arious, numbering among them a
group of those pygmy celebrities of
whom one has never heard until by
chance he meets them, and of whom
heir intimates speak as of immortals.
To Collassos studio Samson was
| ;alled one night by telephone. He
| had sometimes gone there before to
sit for an hour, chiefly as a listener.
| while the man from Sorrento bewailed
ate with his coterie. and denounced
Ill forms of government over insipid
| Chianti.
| But tonight he entered the door to
| Ind himself in the midst OF gay and
Joisterous party. The room was al
'eady thickly logged with smoke. and
/ dozen men and women, singing
matches of current airs. were inter
esting themselves over chafng dish.
The crowd was typical. few very
minor writer's and artists. a model or
two, and several women who had
thinking parts in current Broadway
| productions.
At eleven o'clock the guests of honor
arrived in taxicab. They we're Mr..
William Farbish and Miss Winifred
Starr. Having come, as they explained,
direct from the theater where Miss
Starr danced in the first row, they
were in evening dress Samson men,
| tally acknowledged though with in
stinctive disfavor for the pair, that
both were, in way, handsome. Col
lasso drew him aside to whisper i'm
portantly:
Make yourself agreeable to Farbish.
He is received in the most exclusive
society, and is a connoisseur of art.
II he takes a fancy to you, he will
put you up ct the best clubs. I think
l shall sell him landscape" ia
The girl was talking rapidly and
loudly She had at once taken ths
center Of the room. and her laughter
rang in free and egotistical peals
above the other voices.
Come, said the host, II shall pre-
sent you"
The boy shook hands, gazing with
his usual directness into the show
girls large and deeply-penciled eyes.
Farbish. standing at one side with
his hands in his pockets, looked on
with an air of slightly bored detach-
ment.
His dress, his mannerisms, his bear.
ing. were all those OF the man who has
overstudied his part They were too
perfect, too obviously rehearsed
through years of social climbing. but
that was a defect Samson was not
yet prepared to recognize.
Someone had naively complimented
Miss Starr on the leopard-skin cloak
she had just thrown from her shapely
shoulders, and she turned promptly
and vivaciously to the fiatterer.
1T is nice, isn't it," she prattled.
1T may look little up-stage for girl
who hasn't got a line to read into
the piece, but these days one must
get the spotlight, or be a dead one.
1t reminds me of little run-in / had
with Graddy-he's our stage-director
you know" She paused awaiting the
invitation to proceed. and, having re.
ceived 1t, went gayly forward. Il was
ten minutes late. one day, for rehears-
al, and Grady came up with that sar.
castle manner of his. and said: Miss
Starr, don't doubt you are perfect
ly nice girl, and all that. but 1t rather
gets my goat to figure out how. on
salary of fifteen dollars a week,
you come to rehearsals in a million
dollars worth OF clothes. riding In a
limousine-and ten minutes late!'"
She broke of with the eager little
expression of awaiting applause, and,
having been satisfied. she added: Il
was afraid that wasn't going to get a
laugh, after all"
She glanced inquiringly at Samson,
who had not smiled, and who stood