Gossamer

or sixty of them altogether. I sent for an atlas and found that I had a friend ready made for me in every port of any importance in the West Indies and on the east coast of South America as

itional clothes, getting together a few books on the So

for my good offices. I deserved no thanks; but on the general principle

to do fairly well out of the

exactly. I-I--" he hesitated for a moment and then

your age, but when you get to be forty-I'm forty, so I

ou think I could get--? How much do you

me an exact figure, but it will

dollars?" said

Ascher makes the arrangements he cont

uld make no kind of guess at how much Tim would ultimately

"Or even five hundred dollars? I think I could

rcus," I said. "I don't wonder.

d we always are moving. But I have plenty of time to myself. It isn't to get away f

fic creature you are! No sooner have you p

years. I believe I've hit on a dodge-- I

of the Atlantic now, was at that tim

em of course. You have them in your cir

raph would be doing away with the screen, putting the figures on the stage, that is to say reflections of the

before the eyes of the audience, was pierced by swords and otherwise ill-treated without suffering any inconvenience. The

e said, "that it wou

said. "The cinematograph is bad enough al

nearly sure that there

at Mrs. Ascher

he cinematograph as a sin against art. What

if I thought that. But I don't believe you can be right. I-I went round to see Father Bourke. That was after Mrs. Ascher

d, "what did

what Protestants said was blasphemy. They don't know. At

ther Bourke says a

ight go on for years and years before either of them began to understand what the other meant by the word. But it woul

take Mrs. Ascher's view of the

ures of religious things. I'm sure it must be all right and I can go on with what I want to do.

fe," I said. "But that needn't

graph is perfect up to that point It must make a new start if it's to go any further. I

sion of d

ter of optics. Just making a few adjustmen

anything to the man who provides it with a new torture. It's an odd twist in human nature-th

Tim, "or five hundred dollars at the

your broth

for a thousand dollars he said he'd get it for me on condition that I allowed him to ma

d, "is to let your

ays travelling about with the circus, sometimes in America, sometimes in England. We go to a lot of different towns. We go to all the big

lained the whole position to me thoro

ace. His forehead wrinkled and his fine eyes took

never learned to draw, even; at least not pictures. I can do geometrical drawing, of course, and mak

her little mannerisms. You

not fair to people like Tim Gorman and his Father Bourke. It is not fair to the words themselves. I should not like to be treated in that way if I were a word. I cannot imagine anything more annoying to a respectable, steady-going word than to be called upon suddenly to undertake work to which it is not accustomed. The domestic housemaid is perfectly right in resisting any effort to make her do new kinds of work. Her f

udio because I wouldn't promise not to. Of course, I wouldn't promise such a thing. I think I see how it can be done. The great difficulty is to secure

me. I am totally incapable of understanding anythin

the vaguest ideas to my mind. I can, after a period of intense mental effort, understand what Ascher means by exchanges, premiums, discounts and bills, though he uses these words in unfamiliar ways. But

re, in the end; but you may have to wait for it. In the meanwhile keep on thinkin

There ought to be some way of stabbing a man who insists on ringing you up on the telephone at unreasonable hours and saying tiresome things. We cannot claim to be civilised until we have some weapon for legitimate self defence attached to every telephone, something which could be operated easily and swiftly by press

understanding with Tim. I went, of course, to the studio, not to the hotel. Mrs. Ascher is at

two feet high, of a man of very fine muscular development.

that I admired that p

d towards a table in the

e. I've lost all interest in it. If you like it

at of water-lily leaves. The other half-and I felt gratified when I saw this-was worked up into an unmistakable hammer and a number of disproportionately large nails. Tim's face and head still expressed lofty idealism in the way which had fascinated me when I first saw the thing. But Mrs. Ascher had evidentl

the less sacred parts of the cathedral precincts, the brat decorated the statue of an Archbishop with a pink and blue pape

have it very much. I should set it up on my writing table and c

I suppose it did

did not even

accident? What tricks circumstances play on us! A slight irregularity in drying and a hero becomes a clown. The

aid Mrs. Ascher. "Will you forgive me if I d

ngly bright smiles, which are the greatest achievements of serious women. Very religious women, women with artists' souls and the intenser suffr

what I'm doing

lly at the man's fig

tness, all that this poor neurotic world is yearning for, the primal fo

I said, "the head and face, I mean;

her hands

him. I am working to express his soul, the mere features, the limbs, are nothing. The being which burns within, that is what I am trying to ex

Gorman, the other Gorman,

" she

sitting for y

work was entirely undraped. I do not suppose that Mrs. Ascher would have been the least embarrassed even if I had

and talks. While he talks I catch glimpses of his great, bu

he was back in N

k, perhaps more. To me it seems

what she meant by that so

didn't look m

. That abundant, restless energy of his is

talised creature would call on me. A man of abundant energy would naturally sit hal

azed with rapt intensity at

litanism which is what we hypercivilised people have created in the world, it is

hether he succeeded in wheedling five t

ear that; or if she d

ever of culture. The Romans never touched her shores. The renaissance passed her by. She has

ng speed. The conception of the Romans as apostles of the more malarial kinds of culture was new to me. I had been brought up to believe-not that any one does believe this as an actual fact-that Ireland was once and to some extent still is, an island of

of National Education and quite a large number of technical

he knew much more about Irish education than I did a

she said, "spl

nd the dear dark head of Kathaleen ni Houlihan. Gorman is capable of anything. However as m

Irishman,

ked at me with

aid, "you-yo

ifficulties. I helped

gentlema

d, "a stranger in the

what I say, put more fo

ed us from that catastrophe. I do not think I ever understood before that moment the secret of Gorman's charm. He came into that studio, a place charged with

your soul," I said. "Splendid muscles in the calves

to put his hat, turned his back on Mrs. Ascher for

hinks. It is just possible that he finds her responsive to his fondness for the more flamboyant kinds of rhetoric. Gorman really likes talking about Ireland as an oppressed and desolated land. It is easy enough to move large audiences to enthusiasm by that kind of oratory. It is not so easy, I imagine, to get single, sympathetic listeners in private life. Mrs. Ascher apparently laps up patriotic sentiment with loud purrs. That may be why Gorman likes her. The next thing I mean to ask him is what he means by