from Gerald, after a long silence. He was ill in a public hospital, and asked Basil to come to him. Basil was not at home; Teresa read the note, and, as she was going out, took it herself to the studio. She found Basil hard at work with a model. But he at once dismissed the girl, changed his coat, and departed, promising to come back in an hour at most and report to Teresa. …
The day was hot. The smell of paint and turpentine in the studio was stronger than the now fading lilacs. The room looked disorderly, cumbered by a sort of scaffolding on which the model had been posing, and by various draperies flung on chairs. Teresa looked at the cartoon which Basil was making for a decorative panel. The model came out, dressed, and with a slight salutation to Teresa, went away. She was a tall girl, with an ordinary face, and rough skin, but a pretty figure. When she had closed the door behind her the studio was silent, except for the echoes of steps in the corridors, or a voice uplifted in. some neighbouring room, or a faint whistling farther off. The building was a hive of desultory business, sheltering many attempts to produce the Beautiful. Teresa called it "the factory."
She sat down, took her little clay statuette of the faun out of its moist wrappings, and began working on it languidly. Her corner was the
