"I was glad of the visit, for I felt it would help to set up a normal atmosphere in the house again. And that's what it really seemed to do at first; for, as I said, Marsh was a delight to have around. He was as sincere and profound an artist as I ever saw in my life, and I certainly believe that nothing on earth mattered to him except the perception and expression of beauty. When he saw an exquisite thing, or was creating one, his eyes would dilate until the light irises went nearly out of sight, leaving two mystical black pits in that weak, delicate, chalk-like face; black pits opening on strange worlds which none of us could guess about. "When he reached here, though, he didn't have any chances to show this tendency; for he had (as he told Denis) gone quite stale. It seems he had been very successful as an artist of a bizarre kind--like Fuseli or Goya or Sime or Clark Ashton Smith--but had suddenly become played out. The world of ordinary things around him had ceased to hold anything he could recognize as beauty of enough force and poignancy to arouse his creative faculty. He had often been this way before, but this time he could not invent any new, strange, or outré sensation or experience which would supply the needed illusion of fresh beauty or stimulating adventurous expectancy. He was like a Durtal or a des Esseintes at the most jaded point of his curious orbit. "Marceline was away when Marsh arrived. She hadn't been enthusiastic about his coming, and had refused to decline an invitation from some of our friends in St. Louis which came about that time for her and Denis. Denis, of course, stayed to receive his guest, but Marceline had gone on alone. It was the first time they had ever been separated, and I hoped the interval would help dispel the sort of daze that was making such a fool of the boy. Marceline showed no hurry to get back, but seemed to me to prolong her absence as much as she could. Denis stood it better than one would have expected from such a doting husband, and seemed more like his old self as he talked over other days with Marsh and tried to cheer the listless esthete up. "It was Marsh who seemed most impatient to see the woman; perhaps because he thought her strange beauty, or some phase of the mysticism which had gone into her one-time magical cult, might help to reawaken his interest in things and give him another start toward artistic creation. That there was no baser reason, I was absolutely certain from what I knew of Marsh's character. With all his weaknesses, he was a gentleman, and it had indeed relieved me when I first learned that he wanted to come here because his willingness to accept Denis' hospitality proved that there was no reason why he shouldn't.