Gossamer

tor cars, and enjoying the society of some of the least conventional and most brilliant women in the world. I only found time to call on the Aschers once and then did not see either of them. T

Washington. Gorman always says that the strings of government in modern states are pulled by financiers. Ascher was probably chucking at those which are fastened to the arms and legs of the President of the United States, with a view to

settled, or thought he had settled, the affair of the cash register, he immediately turned his attention to that wealthy motor man in Detroit from whom he meant to get a subscription. The future of the Irish Party possibly, its comforts probably, depended on the success of Gorman's mission. And a par

layers in their particular fields. In the end the general frankness became monotonous and I tired of Canada. I went back to New York, hoping to pick up someone there who would travel home with me by way of the West Indies, islands which I had never seen. I thought it possible that I might persuade the Aschers, if they were still in New York, to make the tour with me. There was just a chance that I

rnest artist would wear while working. Her hair was hanging in loops and wisps about her head, a disorder which was effective with dark-red hair. Her hands were damp and dirty. Her face was smudged here and there, as if, in moments of artistic travail, she had pressed her muddy fingers against her forehead and chin. The room had very little furniture

finished. I don't know why it is, but here in New

in their city that they've finished or ever will finish. If anything begins to look like completion they smash it up at once

en, seen nurses unwrapping the bandages from the wounded limbs of men. The way they did it always reminded me of Mrs. Ascher. The removal of the last bandage

said Mrs

with your fingers and murmur, "Ah!" I was afraid to stroke Psyche because she was certainly wet and probably soft. A to

ght of was a quotation

ed her," I murmured, "and t

if I spoke them to myself and did not mean them to be heard. I do not think Mrs. Ascher knew

I said,

he is the Greek for the

oul, the art

be absolutely hanging on

, "reaching after

ung woman who stood for Mrs. Ascher's Psyche must have longed for that relief. The attitude in whic

d," said Mrs. As

rk," I said. "When y

norance, and I do not know whether a damp, soft Psyche can be pack

harged with aspiration. We all feel it. The city itself aspires. Since the great days when men set out to build a tower the top

was nothing in it, nothing at all in the way of thought or emotion. There must be hundreds of people who can turn out clay girls just as g

howing," she said, "except pe

I thought she had been at John the Baptist and had chosen the moment when his head lay in the charger ready for the danc

ow him very well. One does, one cannot help it, talking to a p

's wonderfu

as noticeable. No artist can model eyes in clay. But Mrs. Ascher had got all that I saw in his eyes into the head before me-all and a great deal more. She had somehow succeeded in making the lips, the nostrils, the forehead, the cheek-bones, express the fact that Tim Go

ally li

My impulse was to say that I liked her, for the first

. I don't know anything about those things. I am not capa

cher, "and this ti

ly as she spoke. Then a smil

poor Psyche's aspiration," she sa

her, understood what I meant as well as what I wanted to convey to her, two very di

I said, "I be

e. It's just a silly little girl, the model-- There wasn't anyt

o Tim Gorman's head again. She ran her f

s head to stand on, to rise from? I was thinking o

nsult to her intelligence. Besides, I was moved. I was, as I had not b

e rose petals over her or any other damned sentimentalism. But this man is a mechanic. He has invented a cash register. What in

lf. I was talking as I never talked in my life before, saying out loud the s

rs. Ascher, "you ha

looked at me and smiled a

way again. I'll suppress it. It's-it's-this is rather an insulting thin

scher

lways says th

at all events. I hate paradoxes. I'm a plain man

aid. "I understand ex

very likely did und

w, I can talk to you

e where Tim Gorman's image stood. I doubt whether Mrs. Ascher ever stands straight or is capable of any kind of stiffness. But even drooping, she had a distinct advantage over me.

she said, "that you l

our was enough for me. Even at the risk of offending Mrs. Ascher

s bad, bad art, if it's a proof of anything. I never really admire anything good, can't bear, simply can't bear old masters, or"-I d

led all the tim

good. But you saw what I meant by it. You can't d

ly time I ever came into touch with him he was helping his brother to persuade Mr.

her. "The elder brother may have been

n the gam

I knew that Tim was not in the game, I

He has the soul of an artist. He is a creator. He is one of humanity's mother natures.

she had not gone about the business in the ordinary way. I think she would have been

, travail, birth. It does not matter whether the thing b

h registe

ept an ordinary baby. The true artist does not

, who brings into being, has only one desire, that his child, whatever it ma

think that men have ever personified this machine. We talk of ships and engines by the names we give them and use personal pronoun

er, "indeed he is sure-he s

the market at all. It is to be used simply as a threat

ot be," said

of tones higher than usual. I

, "must not. It is a crime, a

ot souls. I am as sure of

onate, brave, pure boy, he must not

esentation of the boy's head, having it at that moment before my eyes, I understood what she meant. But

em rather a shady way of ma

never stands upright. She went v

e, drooped backwards from her hips. A slightly soiled light-blue overall is not the garment best suited to set off t

care for, hope for, see nothing else in the world? What does

le-hearted way. The wife of a millionaire-the millionaire himself probably attaches some value to money because he has to get it-an

up and sat down, or rather crouched, on the floor. From that posit

hates money just as much as I do. All he wants is to escape, to have done with i

f he liked. So I thought. So any sensible man must think. And as for living somewhere far, far away, what did the woman want to get away from? Every possible place of residence o

h register?" I said. "W

hateful thing," she said. "Y

aordinarily feeble and ineffectual in ever

He will understand if you explain to him. He

his criticism is the finest thing of its kind that has been published in our time. But Gorman does not look at these matters as Mrs. Ascher does. I do not believe he ever wrote a line in his life without expecting to be paid for it. He would not

will listen to

't he be much more li

she said. "Never, never. Our life toget

ke and stir of

en call

ot somehow expect to find that she knew or liked that par

ur union," she said, "

a point like that. There was no use arguing any point. I gave in and promised to see Ascher about the matter. I prefer Ascher to Gorman if I have to p

," said Mr

said. "To-morro

o my feet rather stiffly, for my stool was far too low. She took my

hispered. "Thank y

io. I wanted to assimilate a new fact, t

at, in her case at least, the artist soul is a reality. She was hysterical and ridiculous when she talked to me, but she was sincere. She was not posing even when she crumpled herself upon the floor and looked like a sick serpent.

ary that I should keep a firm grip on myself. I belong to a class which has lost everything except its sanity. I think it is true of the Irish aristocracy that even its period of greatest glory, even when Grattan was wavin

an learns to believe in influenza when his temperature runs up to 104 degrees and his bones ache furiously. But

ril of my life, for the traffic at that point i

e to the man who refused to take it as it is, who insisted on seeing above him, not silly little twinkling stars, but great worlds coursing through the infinite spaces of eternity. I ran into a boy carrying books, while I was thinking about eternity. His books were scattered over the pavement

ys that he hates doing it and wants to stop. But he goes on doing it. He has formed a habit of making money, and habit is almost unconquerable. It was plainly the p