, disinclined to begin the companion frieze; then again
restless, discontented, tired, and lonely in that strange solitude which
seemed to be growing wider and wider around him in rings of silence. Men
praised and lauded the great frieze; and he strove to respond, to
believe them--to believe in the work and in himself--strove to shake off
the terrible discouragement invading him, lurking always near to reach
out and touch him, slinking at his heels from street to street, from
room to room, skulking always just beyond the shadows that his reading
lamp cast.

Without envy, yet with profound sadness, he stood and faced the
splendour of Querida's canvas. He had gone to Querida and taken him by
both of his thin, olive-skinned hands, and had praised the work with a
heart clean of anything unworthy. And Querida had laughed and displayed
his handsome teeth, and returned compliment for compliment.... And
Neville had seen, on his dresser, a photograph of Valerie, signed in her
long, girlish, angular hand--"To Jose from Valerie"; and the date was of
mid-winter.

Christmas came; he sent Valerie some furs and a note, and, before he
went to Aiken to spend the holidays with his father and mother, he tried
to get her on the telephone--tried half a dozen times. But she was
either busy with business or with pleasure somewhere or other--and he
never found her at home; so he went South without hearing from her.

[Illustration: "Querida had laughed ... and returned compliment for
compliment."]

After he arrived, it is true, he received from her a cigarette case and
a very gay and frank Christmas greeting--happy and untroubled
apparently, brimming with gossip, inconsequences, and nonsense. In it
she thanked him for his letter and his gift, hoped he was happy with his
parents, and expressed an almost conventional desire to see him on his
return.

Then his parents came back to New York with him. Two days before New
Year's Day they went to Spindrift House instead of sailing for Egypt,
where for some years now they had been accustomed to spend the winters
shivering at Shepherd's. And he and his sister and brother-in-law and
Stephanie dined together that evening. But the plans they made to
include him for a New Year's Eve home party remained uncertain as far as
he was concerned. He was vague--could not promise--he himself knew not
why. And they ceased to press him.

"You're growing thin and white," said Lily. "I believe you're getting
pai