lle, Massachusetts, and she confided the details of several of
these love-affairs to Miss Snell's sympathetic ears during the evening.

Meanwhile, the Painter did nothing, and a fresh canvas stood on his
easel when the girls arrived for breakfast on Sunday morning. The big
unfinished painting was turned to the wall; he had lost all interest in
it.

"When I fancy doing a thing I am good for nothing else," he explained to
Cora, after she had promised him a few sittings. "So you are really
saving me from idleness by posing."

Cora laughed, and was silent. The Painter blessed her for not being
talkative; her nasal voice irritated him, although her beautiful
features were a constant delight.

Miss Snell had succeeded in permanently eliminating the disfiguring
bang, and her charming profile was left unmarred.

"I want to paint you just as you are," he said, and noticing that she
looked rather disdainfully at her shabby black cashmere, added, "The
black of your dress could not be better."

"We thought," said Miss Snell, deprecatingly, "that you might like a
costume. We could easily arrange one."

"Not in the least necessary," said the Painter. "I have set my heart on
painting her just as she is."

The girls were disappointed in his want of taste. They had had visions
of a creation in which two Liberty scarfs and a velveteen table cover
were combined in a felicitous harmony of color.

"When can I have the first sitting?" he asked.

"Tuesday, I think," said Miss Snell, reflectively.

"Heavens!" thought the Painter. "Is Miss Snell coming with her?" And the
possibility kept him in a state of nervousness until Tuesday afternoon,
when Cora appeared, accompanied by the inevitable Miss Snell.

It turned out, however, that the latter could not stay. She would call
for Cora later; just now her afternoons were occupied. She was doing a
pastel portrait in the Champs Elysees quarter, so she reluctantly left,
to the Painter's great relief.

He did not make himself very agreeable during the sittings which
followed. He was apt to get absorbed in his work and to forget to say
anything. Then Miss Snell would appear to fetch her friend, and he would
apologize for being so dull, and Cora would remark that she enjoyed
sitting quietly, it rested her after the noise and confusion at
Julian's.

"If she talked much I could not paint her, her voice is so irritating,"
he confided to a friend who was curious and asked all sorts of questi