work at Julian's, but did not find it altogether satisfactory.

The Painter, looking at her indifferently, was roused to a sudden
interest by her face. Her features and complexion were certainly
pleasing, but the untidy mass of straggling hair topped by a battered
straw sailor hat diverted the attention of a casual observer from her
really unusual delicacy of feature and coloring. She was tall and slim,
although now she was dwarfed by Miss Snell's gaunt figure. A worn dress
and shabby green cape fastened at the neck by a button hanging
precariously on its last thread completed her very unsuitable winter
attire. Outside the great studio window a cold December twilight was
settling down over roofs covered with snow and icicles, and the Painter
shivered involuntarily as he noticed the insufficiency of her wraps for
such weather, and got up to stir the fire which glowed in the big stove.

In one corner his model waited patiently for the guests to depart, and
he now dismissed her for the day, eliciting faint protestations from
Miss Snell, who, however, was settling down comfortably in an easy-chair
by the fire, with an evident intention of staying indefinitely. Miss
Price's large, somewhat expressionless blue eyes were taking in the
whole studio, and the Painter could feel that she was distinctly
disappointed by her inspection. She had evidently anticipated something
much grander, and this bare room was not the ideal place she had fancied
the studio of a world-renowned painter would prove to be.

Bare painted walls, a peaked roof with a window reaching far overhead, a
polished floor, one or two chairs and a divan, the few necessary
implements of his profession, and many canvases faced to the wall, but
little or no bric-a-brac or delightful studio properties. The Painter
was also conscious that her inspection included him personally, and was
painfully aware that she was regarding him with the same feeling of
disappointment; she quite evidently thought him too young and
insignificant looking for a person of his reputation.

Miss Snell had not given him time to reply to Miss Price's remark about
her study at Julian's, but prattled on about her own work and the
unsurmountable difficulties that lay in the way of a woman's successful
career as a painter.

"I have been studying for years under ----," said Miss Snell, "and
really I have no time to lose. It will end by my simply going to him and
saying, quite frankly: 'Now, Monsi