of you!"

He gave her all of his mother's gift but ten dollars, and as she
bestowed it carefully away she murmured--

"It _is_ a superb lamp, and a _great_ bargain. You shall see it lit
to-night."

"I'm afraid not to-night, Aunt Caroline. I'm off to see Cedersholm now,
and I shan't be up to much, I reckon, when I get back."

His visitor rose, and Fairfax discovered that he did not wish to detain
her as he had thought to do before she had mentioned her errand. She
seemed to have entirely escaped him. She was as intangible as air, as
unreal.

As he opened the door for her, considering her, he said--

"Bella looks very much like my mother, doesn't she, Aunt Caroline?"

Mrs. Carew thought that Bella resembled her father.

As Fairfax took his car to go down to Ninth Street, he said to himself--

"If _this_ is the first sentimental history on which I am to embark, it
lacks romance from the start."

CHAPTER XX

At the studio he was informed by Cedersholm's man, Charley, that his
master was absent on a long voyage.

"He has left me a letter, Charley, a note?"

"Posted it, no doubt, sir."

Charley asked Mr. Fairfax if he had been ill. Charley was thoroughly
sympathetic with the Southerner, but he was as well an excellent
servant, notwithstanding that he served a master whom he did not
understand.

"I should like to get my traps in the studio, Charley."

"Yes, Mr. Fairfax." But Charley did not ask him in.

"I'll come back again to-morrow.... I'll find a note at home."

"Sure to, Mr. Fairfax."

"Benvenuto been around?"

The Italian had sailed home to Italy on the last week's steamer.
Fairfax, too troubled and dazed to pursue the matter further, did not
comprehend how strange it all was. The doors of the studio were
henceforth shut against him, and Charley obeyed the mysterious orders
given him. There reigned profound mystery at the foundry. The young man
was sensible of a reticence among the men, who lacked Charley's
kindliness. Every one waited for Cedersholm's orders.

The _Beasts_ were cast.

"Look out how you treat those moulds," he fiercely ordered the men.
"Those colossi belong to me. What's the damage for casting them?"

At the man's response, Fairfax winced and thrust his hands into his
empty pockets.

Under his breath he said: "Damn Cedersholm for a cold-blooded brute! My
youth and my courage have gone into these weeks here."

As he left the foundry he repeated his injunction about