Gossamer

Gorman and I were there and when he first saw Mrs. Ascher he swore. However he was forced to give her some sort of welcome and he did it pretty well, though I fear Ascher

of it, was of a vivid orange colour and she wore emeralds round her neck. If the main object of wearing clothes is, as some philosophers maintain, to attract attention, then Mrs. Ascher understands the art of dress. She created a sensation. That was what pleased Gorman. He is a man who likes to be the centre of interest wherever he is, or if that is not possible, to be attached to the person who has secured th

dress circle. After a while when the performance was well under way, Gorman's brother came in. I suppose the greater part of his evening's work was done and he was able to leave the task of dealing with late comers to some subordinate clerk. He looked a mere boy, younger than I expected, as he stood at the end of the row of seats trying to attract his brother's attention. Gorman was so much occupied with Mrs.

se that gave zest to the sport of annexing him. Besides, his eyes are very fine, and, if souls really shine through eyes, showed that he was refreshingly innocent. I expect, too, that there was something piquant in the company of the clerk who takes the money at the door of a second-rate entertainment. Mrs. Ascher has often told me that she is more interested in life than in anything else, even art. She distinguishes between life and real

o questions asked by a man with a long whip in his hand. The animal used one of its front hoofs in arranging the letters, and looked singularly undignified. Ascher sat quite still with an air of grave politeness.

o to us. I can fancy Raphael watching a German professor writing a book on the origin of religion

Ascher, "yes

Or his mind may have been entirely occupied with the problem of Mexican railways so that he could pay no att

forehand were impossible for any creature with bones. Then a large net was stretched some six feet from the ground and several trapezes which had been tied to the roof were allowed to hang down. The acrobats climbed up by a ladde

a long space between them. The young woman, standing on a third trapeze, swung too. Suddenly, at the upward end of a swing, just as her trapeze hung motionless for an instant, she launched herself into the air. The man on the next trapeze came swinging towards her. She caught him by the feet at the very moment when he was nearest to her. He swung back and she dangled below him. When he reached the highest point of the half circle through which he passed, she was stretched out, making with h

The third man, standing on a platform at the other end of the row, set the remaining trapeze swinging, that from which the woman had begun her fligh

lly wonderful. If one of those swings were a fraction la

ere would be nothing particular in it. The wonderful thing is the confidence. The timing of the swings might be all right; but if the woman hesitated for an instant, or if one of the men felt the slightest doubt about the t

profoundly moved by this perfor

s in life," I said, "or wh

ife is," said Ascher

idering the trouble you took to explain the working

u do und

ry like hers. It's the meeting of obligations exactly at the end of their swing, th

vency of the bankers in another country, if there's the smallest hesitation, an

ess. I realised that if anything went wrong between banke

" I said, "there's

hey do the same thing every night of their lives, but they were still able to enjoy the cheering. Their faces were flushed and their

"nobody cheers you. Nobo

r or guesses the supreme confidence we bankers must have in each other.

rest, are bloated spiders who spend their time and energy

can't help feeling that things ought to be better manage

I do not feel that Gorman is in any way right about the Irish landlords. I felt, though

round them rotting in heaps. Men will want all sorts of things and will not be able to get them, though there will be plenty of them in the world. Men will think that the laws of nature ha

r of the net," I said, "and

e that we shall come down; and the audience, the people, will b

xisting cash registers on the swing and then hold them to ransom. We shall set our small trapeze oscillating right across their airy path and decline to remove it unless they agree to part with some of the very shiniest of thei

g eagerly. She lay back in her seat and smiled at him. If she were not interested in what he was saying she succeeded very well in pretending that

eat. Ascher did not find the thing interesting and began to fidget. It was, indeed, much less suggestive than either the learned horse or the acrobats. You cannot discover in a musical ride any parable with a meaning applicable to life. Nothing in the w

man turned up a

writhing, "wants to meet the Galleotti family. They're not a family, you know, and of course they're not called Galleotti. The woman is a

was under the name of the Galleotti

most interes

that are usually quite stupid. However Mrs. Asc

Not contented with having the doorkeeper of a cheap circus sitting, so to speak, i

but Mrs. Briggs simply refuses to go to

of you, Gor

" he said. "But she made a fuss about cl

ad waiter would turn her out if she appeared in that

t me. Fortunately Ascher noticed neither my glance nor Gorman's wink. I had not thought of

to supper in tights. It's her other clothes s

I do not think that any feeling about the shabbiness of hi

to Ascher, "but we're going to

would soften Ascher's heart towards the cash register scheme, but Mrs. Ascher's insistence on meeting the Galleotti famil

d us. Tim, looking more nervous tha

o me. "Take me out of this or I s

faint and felt very uncomfortable. She shut her eyes and murmured in a feeble way. I bent down to hear what she was trying to say, and was relieved to find that she was asking for a cigarette. I gave her one at once. I even lit it f

especially. The play of his shoulder muscles was superb. I wonder if he would sit for me. I do a little modelling, you know. Some day I mu

unity of studying his muscular development at close quarters. Perhaps he had some idea that he was to be on show and did not like it. Instead of wearing his spangled tights he came to supper in a very ill

m. She took a chair in a corner next the wall, and beckoned to Tim Gorman to sit beside her. Tim was miserably frightened and dodged about behind the tallest of the Galleottis to avoid

cheer her u

place in every-day clothes, other men, even I perhaps, mi

did not want to hurt his feelings. Mrs. Ascher may not

We may be meeting men every day who have the figures of Greek g

the least; but I thought a littl

ts may be beating under the trappings o

as every excuse for her. She wanted to see the muscles of Mr. Briggs' shoulders and she wanted Tim Go

until Gorman, who has the finest social talent of any man I ever met, talked to her about her baby. On that subject she actually chattered to the disgust of Mrs. Ascher, who has no ch

ed Tim Gorman. She spoke quite kindly to him and tried to teach him to help her on with her cloak, a garment which Tim was at first afraid to touch. I heard her, when Tim was at last holding the cloak, asking him to sit for her

rds. He did not go into details, and I do not know whether Ascher understood what was expected of him. He invited Gorman to bring Tim and the machine to the bank next day and promised to look into the matter. Gorman, still under the delusion that influence matters, insisted on my