222 STRAY- AW AYS 



huge flat feet that have flattened and spread during 

 long, patient hours of posing : all these, and more, 

 in wearisome reiteration, until a sufficiency of hands 

 has decreed the elevation of one of the gang to be 

 for a week the exponent of the marvels of the human 

 form. 



There comes a time when the soul, however 

 enthusiastic or industrious, turns in nausea from 

 its expected task. Scarce, even, has the ardently- 

 desired, if moderately-expressed, approval of the 

 Professor, " Presque joas mal,^^ power to cheer or 

 charm. Maybe it is the hint of spring in the air, a 

 suggestion of the rioter who will so soon come rapping 

 at the studio windows with fat, brown horse-chestnut 

 buds, and will send the wheeling shadows of the 

 swallows to give distracting hints of sunshine and 

 irresponsibility. Perhaps the owner of the indus- 

 trious and enthusiastic soul referred to ignores these 

 things, and, bringing his attention back to the model 

 — " en clignant Men les yeux,^^ as his Professor has 

 so often ordained — finds that while he was absent 

 in the spirit, the factious at the other side of the 

 studio have radically altered the pose, and his 

 drawing has leaped the narrow gulf that lies between 

 mediocrity and absurdity. He knows it is useless to 

 expostulate, he knows it is his own fault, he knows 

 also that the Professor will arrive to correct in the 

 course of the next five minutes. 



The model causes ripples of shuddering to flow to 

 and fro on his yellow body. 



" Le poele s^eteint ! " says some one, and it occurs 

 to our friend that he is nearest the coal-box and must 

 fulfil the unattractive office of stoker. 



A ray of sun has sneaked round a stack of chimney- 

 pots down through the great skylight of the studio; 

 the dust dances in it. The shrill Alpine piping of 



