It was a word dropped by the gallant Captain, himself a follower of
the fancy, that led her to the discovery that the hero of some feat or
other of extraordinary skill and endurance, and the young Ajax, all
chest and grey eyes and brown curls, who did odd jobs about the studio
in the intervals of posing for Henson's demigodlike canvases, were one
and the same person. Her already throbbing pulse bounded. She herself
was twenty-eight, a small, dark, febrile woman, given over to
discontents based on nothing save on an irremediably spoiled
childhood, and perhaps hankering after an indiscretion in the
conviction that indiscretions were of two kinds--indiscretions, and
the indiscretions of the Scarisbricks. Naturally she became conscious
of a quickened interest in her art.
The first indication that this interest passed beyond birds eggs and
castles was that she began "Lessons in Drapery." If here for a few
moments her story becomes a little technical, it may be none the less
interesting on that account.
The study of Drapery _as_ Drapery has not much interest for anybody
unless perhaps for a student of mechanics. For all that, it is, or
then was, regarded by drawing-masters as a self-contained subject, to
be tackled, ticked off, and thenceforward possessed. To the study of
Drapery in this unrelated sense the Honourable Emily apparently
inclined. Seeing her therefore, in this fundamental error, Sir
Frederick, a master of Drapery, took from her the "copies" which had
already supplanted the "copies" of castles in her portfolio, and
good-humouredly began to tell her what she really wanted. What she
really wanted, he said, was to rid her mind of the idea that folds
existed for their own sake, and to endeavour to realise that their
real significance lay in the thing enfolded. Miss Scarisbrick thanked
him.
So, at first from the lay figure, and then from Henson's model, she
began to draw Drapery with special reference to the thing draped.
About this time she gave Captain Chaffinger for an answer a "No" which
he refused to take. His devotion, he said, forbade him. If by his
devotion he meant his devotion to his creditors, his constancy
remained at their service. In the meantime he was still able to pay
his old debts by contracting new ones.
The Honourable Emily's studies became diligent.
There is little to be said about these things except that they do
happen. A word now about Buck's attitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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