Evening star., 1928-05-27

| IOT dinner Cn ME.
Don't bother" Marvel called care.
lessly. I've some money right
She was ready. oh, yes the money
for Terry. Marvel turned from the
mirror to bookshelf beside it, reached
in back of the books. There were some
bills there that she had been saving
for a course of lectures in anatomy
The bills stuck in their container, and
Marvel lifted it out over the books into
the light. A handleless blue teapot
with an easy-going, grinning mouth
and cheerful upturned spout for a
nose.
At the first touch of its smooth blue
surface. Marvel stopped, as though
coming back to reality with a start. It
was as though a shabby little woman,
bending against the sleety wind, sharp
tears freezing on her laShes, mad come
suddenly into Marvels room.
The long mirror, the Uttered dress
ing table, the room itself-all the teali-
| ties faded before the more intense re-
ality of her presence. After 10 years
of silence, Jane Mannerlng's daughter
could almost hear her indomitable
voice. For several moments Marvel stood
motionless, the blue teapot between her
two hands, listening to that silent voice.
| OdbuAOdy l1O111lIlB 4CLAy WCAlb VA w
| Chicago, for three months, alone.
MARVEL, landing in New York in her
AVA thin Spring SUIT and knitted hug
me-tight, $225 in her purse for imme-
diate needs, $153 in the chamois bag
around her neck for all the hazards
of the future, had had only The sketchi-
est general idea of where she was go
ing. The $225 and the $153 were all
| that was left of her share of her moth
er's thousand. Her part of the funeral
expenses, her fare to New York had
taken most of the rest
what is the best art school in this
city?" The woman in charge at the
Travellers Aid desk glanced up in sur
prise. But the Travellers Aid is used to
answering all sorts of questions. Also,
at times, to asking few of its own. In
five minutes the brisk, friendly woman
had learned from Marvel what Marvel
herself had not realized she knew. That
what she wished to study was CONNER
cial art. Also the exact limit of her
resources The Travellers Aid wrinkled
her forehead consideringly.
IF you had little more money" she
said, I'D suggest Tully's School of
Illustration and Design. I've a young
niece who's studying there. But it's
fifty a month, and they won't take an
entrant except for three months, III
advance"
THAT would be all right" said Mar
vel. "I've enough for that"
The older woman SMILED.
Leaving you two-five dollars and
quarter to live on" she reminded.
Couldn't get place where I could
do some kind Of work for my hoard?"
Marvel asked.
"Yes," said the Aid II krow of sew
eral where you could get breakfast pnd
dinner and take care of an apartment
for business woman, or something OF
that Sort Marvel nodded. 'I can give
you two or three addresses, gnd, when
you've found some way to live. you'll
| be in a position to see about Tully'S."
Marvel shook her head. She was an
ignorant 18, but she was her mothers
daughter.
I'D like to go to Tully's f1rst, please" :"
she said firmly. when that's paid for
and settled, I'll find place to live"
This was Marvels entrance into New
York.
At the end of her first three months.
| Marvel knew Not in definite detail, of
course. Merely that she wanted to draw
smart and beautiful women in lovely
did not even think of drawing them
being content merely to watch them
with awed fascination, savcring Fifth
avenue for the first time. Every min
ute of her limited leisure she spent
there, walking up and down from Fifty
seventh to Thirty-fourth street, gazing
into the shop windows, studying with
frank interest the women going in and
out of the shops, walking along, or wait
ing for their cars. It was not long, of
course, before she began drawing these
women, sketching them on the backs
of returned exercises at Tullys, thumb
tacking an extra bit of white on her
drawing board and amusing herself by
clothing the nude models
At the end of three months,
Marvel needed no more of Tully's. She
left the school and. her Lrisk, regret
full employer, and took oom In the
Arts Club in the West Eighties. She
had found a way of earning her living
in the field of art. Merely doing for
pay what she had been doing for
amusement Drawing clothes.
One of the other students at Tully's
had taught her the ropes, taken her
down to Fishbaum and Cohen's, Stein
mans, Gittelson Brothers, and half
dozen other wholesale dress and suit
manufacturers who must have pictures
of their wares. Five dollars apiece they
would pay for these pictures. Marvel
could scarcely believe it-why, she could
draw one in Is minutes.
It was far from as easy as that,
though. The greater part of every day
must be spent going from Steinman's
to Gittelson's, from Gittelson's to Fish
baum and Cohen'S. making those head
less, feetleSs drawings of the dresses
and suits as they paraded by on the
| firms models, going home and making
tentative pencil sketches of young
women in the dresses, back again to
wait for Mr.. Freundlich or Mr.. Blatt-
man to approve the sketches before
linking them. No mere matter of form,
| that approving, either.
I Obviously, this could be nothing but
step. This was no catching and keep
/ ing fast in black and white that eva
neScent quality of style. Not this dull
mechanical business. It lasted for two
years, however, while Marvel learned
| New York.
CHE learned great deal, those first
~ two years. To dress herself, for
instance. Not in the manner to which
she later learned to aspire, but very
| effectively. She could buy many of
the garments she sketched for little over
! half the retail price and she quickly
learned which to buy. Usually black
and severe. 1t is cheaper to be smart
in severe black than in anything else
That is, of course, If you can carry off
severe black. Marvel could.
Her second year of prosperity she
rented studio, big north room with a
fireplace, just around the corner from
the club; began taking a taxi instead of
the subway during rush hours; buying
tailored silk lingerie, and having her
breakfast sent in. But this period of
luxury was brief Before she had had
time to grow used to the feel of silk
next her skin or the glow of her own
freight, the spirit of the handleless old