figure he
draws or models. You can't get away from yourself, simply because you
are always thinking yourself, or through yourself; you can't see or
know any one else in any other way."

"It's a very curious thing," said Ludlow, uneasily. "I've noticed that,
too; I suppose every one has. But--good-night."

Wetmore followed him out of the studio to the head of the public stairs
with a lamp, and Ludlow stopped there again. "Should you think there
was anything any one but you would notice?"

"You mean the two girls themselves? Well, I should say, on general
principles, that what two such girls didn't see in your work----"

"Of course! Then--what would you do? Would you speak to her about it?"

"Which?"

"You know: Miss Saunders."

"Ah! It seems rather difficult, doesn't it?"

"Confoundedly."

"Why, if you mean to say it was unconscious, perhaps I was mistaken.
The thing may have been altogether in my own mind. I'd like to take
another look at it----"

"You can't. I've painted it out." Ludlow ran down one flight of the
stairs, and then came stumbling quickly back. "I say, Wetmore. Do you
tell your wife everything?"

"My dear boy, I don't tell her anything. She finds it out. But, then,
_she_ never tells anybody."

XXVII.

Ludlow sent word again to Charmian that he should not be able to keep
his appointment for the afternoon, and as soon as he could hope to find
Cornelia at home from the Synthesis, he went to see her.

He began abruptly, "I came to tell you, Miss Saunders, when I first
thought of painting Miss Maybough, and now I've come to tell you that
I've given it up."

"Given it up?" she repeated.

"You've seen the failures I've made. I took my last one home yesterday,
and painted it out." He looked at Cornelia, but if he expected her to
give him any sort of leading, he was disappointed. He had to conclude
unaided, "I'm not going to try any more."

She did not answer, and he went on, after a moment: "Of course, it's
humiliating to make a failure, but it's better to own it, and leave it
behind you; if you don't own it, you have to carry it with you, and it
remains a burden."

She kept her eyes away from him, but she said, "Oh, yes; certainly."

"The worst of it was the disappointment I had to inflict upon Mrs.
Maybough," he went on uneasily. "She was really hurt, and I don't
believe I convinced her after all that I simply and honestly couldn't
get the picture. I went to tell her this afte