ortrait of the mother. In every case it had been differently
done, inadequately done; but in all cases it had been done. Hardly could
any observer have failed to recognize what was there depicted. Beyond
smearings and daubings of paint, as past the edges of concealing clouds,
one caught glimpses of a serene and steadfast human radiance. There one
beheld the familiar image of that orb which in dark and pathless hours
has through all ages been the guardian light of the world--the mother.

The best in them had gone into the painting of this portrait, and the
consciousness of our best gives us the sense of our power, and the
consciousness of our power yields us our enthusiasm; hence the
exhilaration and energy of the studio scene.

The interest of the members of the class was not concerned solely with
the portrait, however: a larger share went to the model herself. They
had become strongly bound to her. All the more perhaps because she held
them firmly to the understanding that her life touched theirs only at
the point of the stranger in need of a small sum of money. Repulsed and
baffled in their wish to know her better, they nevertheless became aware
that she was undergoing a wonderful transformation on her own account.
The change had begun after the ordeal of the first morning. When she
returned for the second sitting, and then at later sittings, they had
remarked this change, and had spoken of it to one another--that she was
as a person into whose life some joyous, unbelievable event has fallen,
brightening the present and the future. Every day some old cloudy care
seemed to loose itself from its lurking-place and drift away from her
mind, leaving her face less obscured and thus the more beautifully
revealed to them. Now, with the end of the sittings not far off, what
they looked forward to with most regret was the last sitting, when she,
leaving her portrait in their hands, would herself vanish, taking with
her both the mystery of her old sorrows and the mystery of this new
happiness.

Promptly at nine o'clock the teacher of the class entered, greeted them,
and glanced around for the model. Not seeing her, he looked at his
watch, then without comment crossed to the easels, and studied again the
progress made the previous day, correcting, approving, guiding,
encouraging. His demeanor showed that he entered into the mounting
enthusiasm of his class for this particular piece of work.

A few minutes were thus quickly con