Evening star., 1934-08-26

her own profile tilted to the sky.
Geoffrey drew a long deep breath. =.
and suddenly a staccato, uncomfortable
command broke from him.
Hold it! Hold it, 1 say! Don't you
dare move! If you do, I'll-I'n break
your neck!"
He shot down the stairs and snatched
up pad and pencil. He burst back into
Marcia's room, swung the door shut.
Now This way little! That's it! Oh,
lady, lady," he gloated, "thisn do it!
Thisn do it!'
So Marcia posed. When she should
have been resting Or practicing. At
the end of the second week the aunt
of Picklepanties came and took him
away, but the picture went on with just
Marcia holding pillow, because, luckily,
Godfrey still had the little likeness he
had previously done.
And during rehearsalS of Naughty
Nancy" Marcia watched Lola Terry max
ing hay with the best number in the
show, and baff1ed, furious tears stung
her eyes. Because she, Marcia, didn't
have a chance any longer. She hadn't
tried the tricky little dance routine for
ages.
Godfrey, painting, was flendiSh per-
son. He slaved and swore and was i'm
possible to please. Once he had her
flying from the room in tears of rage.
And when he went after her and carried
her remorsefully down again, she mar
veled at the strength of his arms and
the gentleness of him, and her heart
wouldn't behave all the rest of the day.
And then ultimately the picture was
finished, and Godfrey titled it simply
"At Rest" and sent it in and thought
about going out and getting very drunk.
But he didn't. Instead, he stayed home
and prowled around his room and lis
tened for the Wooden Soldiers" up
stairs who seemed to have finished
parading for good. That bothered him.
And then the day of the opening of
the exhibition came round, and it sud-
denly dawned on Godfrey that he hadn't
seen anything at all of Marcia since the
picture was finished. So he dashed up
stairs. Mrs. Brady was just coming out
Of MarciaS room, and through the clos
ing door the impatient young artist
caught fieeting glimpse of small
crushed form on the bed, and heard the
echo of stifled sob that for some reason
cut into his heart like the thrust of cold
metal A horn sounded outside. That
would be Jim stopping by to take him
to the grand opening.
Mrs. Brady said soothingly, Its asleep
she'll be in a minute"
Geoffrey swung on her. whats the
matter? She's-She's crying!"
Mrs. Brady put warning finger to her
lips. "Its disappointed she is, the poor
lamb! I didn't get Just the rights of it,
but this Wahlberg that's putin on the
show was there this marnin', and her
not knowin' speciality song an dance,
do ye see, that she wanted to ask him
could she do? 'Twould be manin' a
foine chanel for her, she says, if she'd
been practicin' it up good an ALI"
The horn sounded again, urgently.
Geoffrey cast a desperate, stricken look
at the closed door and plunged down the
stairs. He vaulted recklessly into the
seat of long green roadster, and to the
good-looking gray-haired man behind
the wheel he said, IF any one asks you,
Jim, just mention that I'm a rotten,
selfish, flthy-tempered, impossible half
witted chump, will you?"
Right" promised Jim cheerfully, and
shot in his gears.
IT DIDN'T mean a thing that they'd
hung his picture beautifully, and that