Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1930-10-10
MARGARET WEYMOUTH
JACKSON
wNU Service
Copyright by Bobbs-Merrill Co.
CHAPTER XTTT-Continued

CHAPTER XIII-ContInued
-2t-
She looked through everything and
found material with the dust of year
upon 1t. In a pile were pictures Of
the poplar tree. He had made the
tree again and again. She caught a
hint of desperation. He had been de-
liberately careless. He had distorted
the limbs, but neither the carelessness
nor the distortion had given him the
quality that lay now on the board
with the charcoal sketch of herself on
the stairs-a thing called Life. vi
tally!
Months Of work. Months Of strug-
gle. Secret, silent-a new idea, new
stirring pain goading him out Of his
Nath.
And every morning he had to go
and make the cat cartoons. He had
to go from the Sun to the movie
studio. When he was longing to ex-
pertinent with this new conception.
He was ready to leave satire for a
new form of beauty. He was ready to
establish a new and modern school Of
work.
1t was not an unnatural develop
ment. Looking back, it seemed to
Ernestine that the years had conspired
in order to accomplish this. She re-
membered the little boy with his leg
in a brace, who had made the book of
bird pictures for her-a book she still
loved and possessed, and which she
had been showing to Peter only day
or two ago. Will had so loved the
color of wings.
She recalled the water colors on his
mothers walls the smudged pictures
of John Pryor when he was baby
crude but warm. She remembered
what Mrs. Todd had said-all the
neighbors thought Will would be a
great artist some day. If he were not
subjugated to her biological neces-
stiles
Through the newspaper environment
and his hero worship of John Poole
he had become a cartoonist. And he
had had hard work and desperate
struggle to accomplish that. But the
very things this success had brought
him had been a means of releasing this
deeper, more sincere impulse. The
comfort, the affluence, the sense Of
security, all had enabled him to begin
to give heed to another voice.
And VIII had thought in his SIM
plicity that he could have a secret !!
He had imagined that he could, in his
idle hours, pursue this new and de-
lightful gift of artistry. He had ex-
perimented here alone with new tools,
new methods, and thought that no one
would ever know. Ernestine was
wiser. She knew the consequences of
activity, secret or open. This studio
was going to destroy the cats as GER
tainly as love destroys infatuation.
She stopped and brushed lightly
with her lips the charcoal image of
herself descending the stairs. She
locked the door and went away, her
lips firm, her eyes glowing in her love-
ly face.
whenever you are ready, VIII, l
will be ready, too"
But Will did not seem to be ready.
He had changed. He had become
silent, mOrose, irritable. There was
no question now as to where he was
spending his time, for he played bridge
hours every day. He won constantly,
Ernestine kept him as clean of money
as she could, subverting all that she
could lay hands on to her own pur-
poses. She did not know how much
money he won at cards, but his mania
was a new thing, and she could not
understand it. One night at dance
in the club to which he belonged she
saw him through the open door Of the
cardroom. sitting at heavy round
table, his face absolutely set, his dark
eyes watchful, playing in an intense
absorption.
'How does he play?" she asked her
partner, a friend Of VIII. I've played
with him, of course, but always with
women, and he seemed Indifferent
careless"
81 wish 1 could get him at a table
when there were women there" the
man, a middle-aged illustrator, an
swered. HE has great deal Of my
money. Why, he plays an extraordi-
narily good game, and every one. likes
to play with him because he minds his
own business. He plays for study, but
he doesn't row. He makes no mis-
takes, but he doesn't jump on the
fellow who does. And cards! oh,
boy-he has them. He has an abso-
lutely marvellous memory"
Ernestine knew this. Willis memory
was part of his equipment as an artist.
He would be able to visualize each