Peter Whiffle : $b His life and worksVan Vechten, Carl
General
Peter Whiffle : $b His life and works
Van Vechten, Carl
American fiction -- 20th century
Did I, attracted by the strange name, lunch at the Deux-Magots? It is
possible. I know that later I strolled down the Rue de Seine and along
the quais, examining eighteenth century books, buying old numbers of
l'Assiette au Beurre, and talking with the quaint vendors, most of
them old men. Then I wandered up the Rue de Richelieu, studying the
examples of fine bindings in the windows of the shops on either hand.
About three o'clock, I mounted the impériale of a bus, not even asking
where it was going. I didn't care. I descended before the gate of the
Parc Monceau and passed a few happy moments in the presence of the
marble lady in a dress of the nineties, who reads Guy de Maupassant
in the shadow of his bust, and a few more by the Naumachie, the oval
pool, flanked by a semi-circular Corinthian colonnade in a state of
picturesque ruin.
At a quarter before four, I left the parc and, hailing a fiacre, bade
the driver take me to Martha Baker's studio in the Avenue Victor Hugo,
where I had an appointment. Martha was painting my portrait. She had
begun work on the picture in Chicago the year before but when I went
to New York, she went to Paris. So it was still unfinished and I had
promised to come to her for more sittings. Now, in Chicago, Martha
noted that I grew restless on the model-stand and she had found it
expedient to ask people in to talk to me, so that my face would not
become dead and sullen. There, I usually knew the people she would ask,
but it occurred to me, as I was driving to her door, that in Paris I
knew no one, so that, if she followed her habit, I would see new faces.
The cocher stopped his horse before an old stone house and I entered.
Challenged by the concierge, I asked for Mademoiselle Bahker, and was
directed to go through the courtyard into a back passageway, up the
stairs, where I would find Mademoiselle Bahker, troisième à gauche. I
followed these instructions and knocked at the door. Martha, herself,
opened it.
Oh, Carl, it's you! I'm so glad to see you!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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