“Nineteen and the whole world before you, work and failure and success and New York and Paris and your first love affair—you’re young and you don’t have to nibble at the loaf; you can take big, hungry bites, and when the time for nibbling does come, you’ll have a banquet to remember.” “Where is the Art Students’ League?” asked Ruth. Her aunt fascinated her; she talked “like a book,” Ruth thought, but Ruth herself was practical despite her dreaming and the talk of art schools interested her. “Oh, it’s a school with small fees—if you have a lot of talent they give scholarships—I don’t really know much about it, except that it’s on Fifty-seventh Street some place, and that it is supposed to be proper and good. You might try it for a year—then you’ll probably be wanting Paris. In another year I may feel old enough to chaperon you.” After breakfast they went through the house, planning where Ruth should establish herself, finally deciding on two rooms on the fourth floor, because one of them had a skylight and could be used as a studio, where Ruth could work undisturbed. The next few days were spent in buying furniture, in having the rooms redecorated, and in becoming familiar with New York. Ruth was determined not to be impressed by anything, a determination that led Gloria Mayfield to suspect that her niece was of a phlegmatic temperament, and to wonder why she wanted to be an artist. Only the quiet sense of humour that Ruth displayed at rare intervals, encouraged her to believe that having her niece with her might not be a bad arrangement. Ruth on her part discovered that her Aunt Gloria had a wide and varied circle of friends and no particularly well-defined scheme of existence. And she discovered a little of Gloria Mayfield’s past, the past that had been so shrouded in mystery in her mother’s house. It was when Ruth had made a remark about her aunt living alone in such a large house. “Yes, it is large, but what am I to do?” said Gloria. “My second husband wished it on me and my third was kind enough to settle enough income on me to pay the taxes, and there you are. Of course I could let it to some one else, but it’s nice to have a lot of room.” Ruth could not disguise her shock and astonishment. “Oh, didn’t you know?” asked Gloria, smiling cheerfully. “I didn’t know you’d been married at all,” said Ruth. “Only once, really—the others were almost too casual. I supposed your mother had told you.” “Did they die?” asked Ruth. “Not to my knowledge—I never killed any of them,” said Gloria. And Ruth put this conversation away in the back of her brain for future reference, along with several dozen other things that she didn’t exactly understand. CHAPTER II