The Common Law

ch he had begun during the previous summer. But the painting of it involved him in difficulties entirely foreign to him-difficulties born of technical timidity of the increasing and inexplicable la

-givers and law-defenders of all ages and all lands, in robes and gowns of silks; in armour, in skins, in velvet and ermine-men wearing doublet, jack-coat, pourpoint; men in turban and caftan, men covered with mail of all kinds-armour of leather, of fibre, of lacquer, of quilted silk, of linked steel, Milanaise, iron cuirass; the emblazoned panoply of the Mongol paladi

zones, filets, girdles, robes of fur, hoods, wallets, helmets, hats, lay piled up, everywhere in methodical disorder. And into and out of the studio passed male models of all statures, all ages, venerable, bearded men, men in their prime, men with the hard-hammered features and thick, sinewy neck

him among all these men. After hours, once or twice, she came in to tea-to gossip a little with the old-time ease, and barter with him epigram for jest, nonsense

Gary Graves-Sam Ogilvy with his eternal mermaidens, Querida-nobody else. The other engagements had been for costume or, at most, for head and shoulders. Illustrators now clamoured for her in modish garments of the moment-in dinner gown, ball gown, afternoon, carriage, motor, walking, tennis, golf, riding costumes; poster artists made her pretty features popular

e were beginning to make her celebrated. Already people about town-at the play, in the park, on avenue and street, in hotel

lso had chances to wear very wonderful model gowns for next season at the Countess of Severn's new dressmaking, drawing-rooms whither all snobdom crowded and shoved to get near the

ned extensive stables and drove tandems, spikes, and fours; and some were celebrated for their yachts, or motors, or prima-donnas, or business acumen, or charitable extravagances.... Yes, truly, Valerie West was beginning to have many opportunities in this generously philanthr

igh-keyed studies very much after the manner and palette of Chaplin when they resembled neither Chartrain nor Zier, nor any other artist temporarily in vogu

crested panels-and there'll be a bunch of orchids in the crysta

"She's as likely to do that as

e had finally resulted in a dinner at the Astor, and in her firm, polite, but uncompromising declination of all fu

thin wet brush busy on his canvas. "Well, sister, take it from muh, she thinks she's the

observed Rita, scornfully; "you're usually b

apparently undisturbed; "but when sh

d Rita, calmly. "Whoever told you tha

think

o! She we

" said Allaire so unpleasantly

or two has touched her finger tips-her waist-her lips, perhaps-no man has obtained more than that of her-dared more than that! I have never heard that any man has

is palette knife-which was unusual in a painter as clever as he and whose pr

d Westchester were already beginning to pour in cityward, followed later by Newport, Lenox, and Bar Harbour. The police put on their new winter uniforms; furs were displayed in carriages, automobiles, and theatres; the beauty of the florist's windows became mellower, richer, and more splendid; the jewellery in the restaurants more gorgeous. Gotham was beginnin

ill, as badly as it ever had averaged. Allaire showed two portraits of fashionable women, done, this time, in the manner of Zorn, and quite as clever on the streaky s

that women instinctively stepped back and lifted their skirts, and men looked vaguely around for a waiter-at least Ogilvy said so. As for Neville, he had a single study to show-a full length-just the back and head and

a looking amiably at a statuette of Venus which he held in his long, tapering fingers; magazines tried to print it in two colours, in three, in dozens, and made fireworks of it to Querida's inwardly suppressed agony, and their own satisfaction. Serious young men wrote "appreciations" about it; serious young women published instructive

diners-out and to those cultivated leaders of society

where unmanicured genius punctures the air with patois and punches holes in it with frenzied thumbs, to quiet, cultivated homes, where community of taste restricts the calling lists-from the noisy stu

aculis sim

s, but it had become sufficiently itching to stir him out of fatigue when the long day's work had ended-enough to drive him out of the studio-at first merely to roam about at hazard through the livelier sections of the city. But to the lonely, there is no lonelier place than a lively one; and the false brilliancy an

is increasing restlessness. And it shoved him in the directi

Avenue; he decorated a few dances, embellished an opera box now and then, went to Lakewood and Tuxedo for w

t one day end in a great change, a complete transformation for himself, of himself, of the world around him and of his aim and hope and purpose in l

, leaving him listless and indifferent at first, then idle, disinclined to begin the companion frieze; then again restless, discontented, tired, and lonely in that strange solitude which seemed to be growing wider and wider around him in rings of silence. Men praised and lauded the great frieze; and he stro

hands, and had praised the work with a heart clean of anything unworthy. And Querida had laughed and displayed his handsome teeth, and returned compliment for complime

father and mother, he tried to get her on the telephone-tried half a dozen times. But she was either busy with bus

laughed ... and returned c

and untroubled apparently, brimming with gossip, inconsequences, and nonsense. In it she thanked him for his letter an

een accustomed to spend the winters shivering at Shepherd's. And he and his sister and brother-in-law and Stephanie dined together that evening. But the plans they made to in

e," said Lily. "I believe you

" he said, smiling. "I'm not

do on those enormous canvases of yours. Why don

lau

s, read them while lunching, and sat and pondered. Why not? It might help. Because he certainly began to need help. He had gone quite stale. Querida was right; he ought to lie fallow. No ground could yield eternally without rest. Quer

itted it now for the first time-considered the proposition silently, wearily,

became contemptible. Farther than ever, farther than the farthest, stars receded the phantoms of the great Masters. What they believed and endured

between his work and the thin, clear, clever brush-work of Allaire-with all its mastery of ways and means, al

g and growing late when he wrote to a steamship agent

relight playing over Gladys who sat in the full heat of the blaze,

e he collided with Samuel Strathclyde Ogilvy and Henry Knickerbocker Annan, and was seized and compelled to perform with them on the snowy sidewalk, a kind of round

most dignified performance I e

ting for dignity. Harry and I came here in a hurry to find a

of cheerful ass we need in our business. C

want me to g

and scream. Burleson was going with us to see the old year out at the C

t want

friend. We've engag

ix

f experience coeducation is a n

is go

"'Me lord, th

sses from his gloved finger tips in the general direction of B

not feeling parti

ll be at the Gigolette-good, bad, fashionable, semi-fashionable-all imbued with the intellectual and commendable curios

I won

him into a taxi, beckoning two other si

mpered Sam, "don'

d smoothed out the

the clerk at the desk seemed to be unusually popular with the guests. And after every stop there ensued a shifting of passengers in the taxicabs, until Neville found himself occupying the rear taxi in the

rquoises. "I'm afraid somebody will start something and then they'll throw confetti, and somebody will think it's funny to aim champagne corks at you. So I've come

... I'm Louis Neville

name, Louis. Who was it they had all framed up to give me my cues? That big Burleson ge

is my only Sunda

e added, cor

y accomplishm

She laughed as the cab stopped at the re

ngs flourishing horns, canes, rattles, and dusters decked with brilliant ribbon

. Pages in flame-coloured and gold uniforms lifted the silken rope that stretched its barrier between the impati

ly; great mounds of flowers, smilax, ropes of evergreens, multi-tin

l New York was dining and preparing for eventualities; the eventualities being that noisy

d aloof; because some of them do not. And in this uproarious carnival the better sort are as likely to misbehave as are the worse; and they have done it, and do it, and

s glimmered, jewels sparkled, the clear crystalline shock of glasses touching gla

of streaming confetti was blocked by bare arms upflung to shield laug

ised many, responding to recognition with

cried Mazie, dropping

imprudent enough to t

rer, opening her fan w

ouldn't

e perfectly plural to-night-everything should be plural, multiple, diff

tion: Maz

tic?" demanded Maz

s! I'm yours and you're mine but every

and total stranger who is going to steal the first kiss

ts the volleys became general, then the wild interchange of civilities subsided, and the cries of laught

e to their feet cheering the beautiful prima donna with whom the song was so c

they wouldn't let her alone until she mounted her chair and

lse's pretty wife; and there were men well known at fashionable clubs and women known in fashionable sets, and men and women characteristic of quieter sets, plainly a little uncertain and surprised to find themselves the

inguishing neither his own voice nor the replies. For the tumult grew as the hour

terrific, swelling, roaring into an infernal din as the raucous blast of horns increased in the streets outsi

ring amid the crash of glasses. Table-cloths, silken gowns, flowers were crushed and trampled under foot; flushed faces looked into stran

wers and splintered crystal. Her face was flushed, eyes and mouth brilliant, her gown almost torn from her left

threw roses back at everybody, snatching her ammuni

olleys of rosebuds-was in the act of hurling her last blossom-caught sight of Neville where he stood wit

eeks reddened; then with a gay laugh he passed his arm around Valerie and, coolly f

dy lost in the throng, making his way toward the door, pelted, shouldered, block

he scarcely heard them. Then a hand caught

you g

he said

hy

nough-of th

ming and going, she stood, vivid lips par

you were to b

t was an

as the

t gi

you with her hands

I know," he said,

mething-

ou bri

bring you?" he a

the last rose drop

way-laid her hand on his sleeve with an impu

en surge of unreasoning anger that possessed hi

nder, pale, close to his shoulder, descending the great staircase

at him-stood a moment slowly tearing the orchids from

oat-his gift; a page bro

ou call

porter. Then they waited,

e had forestalled him. And he entered the narrow vehicle; and they sat th

"Are you not

t y

tled with the driver, then entered the great building,

y; the door swung slo