d Roderick impatiently, returning to his
work. "I have only one way of expressing my deepest feelings--it 's
this!" And he swung his tool. He stood looking at the half-wrought clay
for a moment, and then flung the instrument down. "And even this half
the time plays me false!"

Rowland felt that his irritation had not subsided, and he himself had no
taste for saying disagreeable things. Nevertheless he saw no sufficient
reason to forbear uttering the words he had had on his conscience from
the beginning. "We must do what we can and be thankful," he said. "And
let me assure you of this--that it won't help you to become entangled
with Miss Light."

Roderick pressed his hand to his forehead with vehemence and then shook
it in the air, despairingly; a gesture that had become frequent with him
since he had been in Italy. "No, no, it 's no use; you don't understand
me! But I don't blame you. You can't!"

"You think it will help you, then?" said Rowland, wondering.

"I think that when you expect a man to produce beautiful and wonderful
works of art, you ought to allow him a certain freedom of action, you
ought to give him a long rope, you ought to let him follow his fancy and
look for his material wherever he thinks he may find it! A mother can't
nurse her child unless she follows a certain diet; an artist can't bring
his visions to maturity unless he has a certain experience. You
demand of us to be imaginative, and you deny us that which feeds the
imagination. In labor we must be as passionate as the inspired sibyl; in
life we must be mere machines. It won't do. When you have got an artist
to deal with, you must take him as he is, good and bad together. I don't
say they are pleasant fellows to know or easy fellows to live with; I
don't say they satisfy themselves any better than other people. I only
say that if you want them to produce, you must let them conceive. If
you want a bird to sing, you must not cover up its cage. Shoot them, the
poor devils, drown them, exterminate them, if you will, in the interest
of public morality; it may be morality would gain--I dare say it would!
But if you suffer them to live, let them live on their own terms and
according to their own inexorable needs!"

Rowland burst out laughing. "I have no wish whatever either to shoot you
or to drown you!" he said. "Why launch such a tirade against a warning
offered you altogether in the interest of your freest development?
Do you really mean that y