heir little lanterns for a second to glow again from other shadows. The
sky was a wonderful olive green; a lazy cloud drifted in it and lapped
itself athwart the moon.

"The dead painters design the skies for us each day and night, I think,"
Helen said, as she dropped a little scarf from her shoulders and leaned
back on the bench. "It must be the only way to keep them happy and busy
'up there.' They let them take turns, and those not on duty, probably
float around and criticise."

"They've given a good man his turn to-night," said John; "some quiet
colorist, a poetic, friendly soul, no Turner--though I think I've seen a
Turner sunset or two in Plattville."

"It was a sculptor's sunset this evening. Did you see it?--great
massy clouds piled heap on heap, almost with violence. I'm sure it was
Michelangelo. The judge didn't think it meant Michelangelo; he thought
it meant rain."

"Michelangelo gets a chance rather often, doesn't he, considering the
number of art people there must be over there? I believe I've seen a
good many sunsets of his, and a few dawns, too; the dawns not for a
long time--I used to see them more frequently toward the close of senior
year, when we sat up all night talking, knowing we'd lose one another
soon, and trying to hold on as long as we could."

She turned to him with a little frown. "Why have you never let Tom
Meredith know you were living so near him, less than a hundred miles,
when he has always liked and admired you above all the rest of mankind?
I know that he has tried time and again to hear of you, but the other
men wrote that they knew nothing--that it was thought you had gone
abroad. I had heard of you, and so must he have seen your name in the
Rouen papers--about the 'White-Caps,' and in politics--but he would
never dream of connecting the Plattville Mr. Harkless with _his_ Mr.
Harkless, though _I_ did, just a little, and rather vaguely. I knew, of
course, when you came into the lecture. But why haven't you written to
my cousin?"

"Rouen seems a long way from here," he answered quietly. "I've only been
there once--half a day on business. Except that, I've never been further
away than Amo or Gainesville, for a convention or to make a speech,
since I came here."

"Wicked!" she exclaimed, "To shut yourself up like this! I said it was
fine to drop out of the world; but why have you cut off your old friends
from you? Why haven't you had a relapse, now and then, and come over
to hea