ng air and when he smiled
or laughed it was with his whole face. When he became excited or gay
something seemed to happen distinctly to every part of his body. His
face became a curious cross-hatch of genial lines. His tongue loosened
and he talked fast. He had a habit of emphasizing his language with
oaths on these occasions--numerous and picturesque, for he had worked
with sea-faring men and had accumulated a vast vocabulary of picturesque
expressions. They were vacant of evil intent so far as he was concerned,
for there was no subtlety or guile in him. He was kindly and genial all
through. Eugene wanted to be friendly and struck a gay relationship with
these two. He found that he got along excellently well with them and
could swap humorous incidents and character touches by the hour. It was
some months before he could actually say that he was intimate with them,
but he began to visit them regularly and after a time they called on
him.

It was during this year that he came to know several models passingly
well, to visit the various art exhibitions, to be taken up by Hudson
Dula, the Art Director of _Truth_ and invited to two or three small
dinners given to artists and girls. He did not find anyone he liked
exceptionally well barring one Editor of a rather hopeless magazine
called _Craft_, devoted to art subjects, a young blond, of poetic
temperament, who saw in him a spirit of beauty and tried to make friends
with him. Eugene responded cheerfully and thereafter Richard Wheeler was
a visitor at his studio from time to time. He was not making enough to
house himself much better these days, but he did manage to buy a few
plaster casts and to pick up a few nice things in copper and brass for
his studio. His own drawings, his street scenes, were hung here and
there. The way in which the exceptionally clever looked at them
convinced him by degrees that he had something big to say.

It was while he was settling himself in this atmosphere--the spring of
the second year--that he decided to go back and visit Angela and
incidentally Alexandria and Chicago. He had been away now sixteen
months, had not seen anyone who had won his affections or alienated him
from his love of Angela. He wrote in March that he thought he would be
coming in May or June. He did get away in July--a season when the city
was suffering from a wave of intense heat. He had not done so
much--illustrated eight or ten stories and drawn four double page
pictur