"I can imagine you one about as easily as the other." "That is bitter-sweet; a compliment and a flout." "If I had said that," Helen observed, smiling, "you would have retorted, with a look of gloomy solemnity, that most things in life are bitter-sweet; unless, indeed, you felt called upon to phrase it that it had the advantage of most earthly matters by not being wholly bitter." "Was I ever guilty of such commonplace attempts at epigrams as that?" returned Arthur. "If so it is certainly a good thing that I have given up repartee for matrimony." "Oh, that is brilliant beside many of your attempts, I assure you. And as for your giving them up--I reserve my decision." "You shall see, skeptic," he said lightly. "I expect to change the face of the whole world if necessary." "It is a common error of ardent temperaments," she returned pleasantly, but with evident sincerity, "to assume that a state of feeling can change the world." "But I must, I will," he began eagerly. Then the light died out of his face and he ended with a shrug. Helen put up her hand with an impulsive gesture, as if about to speak. Then letting her arms fall by her side, she turned to unlock the studio door, which by this time they had reached. The bas-relief was still shrouded in its damp envelopes, which Helen carefully removed, keeping Fenton away, that he might first see the work as a whole, and not lose its legitimate effect by catching fragmentary glimpses as it was uncovered. When at last it was fully disclosed, she called him to her as she stood before it. "By Jove! That's stunning!" he exclaimed, after an instant's pause, which gave him time to see it fairly. "Helen, you have outdone yourself! That figure is simply superb. I hadn't an idea you would come out so well. I'm wonderfully proud of you." "You are more amiable than ever," she responded; but her flushed cheek showed that she was touched by his earnest praise. "For that figure I have to thank Ninitta's posing. She is an inspiration." "But Ninitta did not inspire that splendid head," observed Arthur, pointing with his cane at the December, "and you evidently did that _con amore_. By Jove! It's Grant Herman, as I live!" As he spoke he turned and saw Ninitta on the threshold. "Shall you want me to-day?" the latter asked of Helen. "What made that girl look so savage?" Fenton questioned as the door closed behind the model. "She perhaps chooses to be jealous of me," Helen replied composedly. "_Elle a peutêtre raison_." "Perhaps." "You say that too calmly by half," was his gay response. "Yet as every work a woman does has a man for its end--I learned that from the classics; Penelope, you know, and even washwoman Nausicaä--I suppose it is fair to assume this had. Only who is the man?"