The lesson was an ordeal, as usual. The model, a muscle-bound young graduate of the barbell gyms and figure-photography studios, was stupid and argumentative about ten-minute poses. Two of the girls came near a hair-pulling brawl over the rights to a preferred sketching location. A third girl had discovered Picasso's cubist period during the past week and proudly announced that she didn't _feel_ perspective in art. But the two interminable hours finally ticked by. He nagged them into cleaning up--not as bad as the Saturdays with oils--and stood by the open door. Otherwise they would have stayed all night, cackling about absent students and snarling sulkily among themselves. His well-laid plans went sour, though. A large and flashy car drove up as the girls were leaving. "That's Austin Malone," said Lucy. "He came to pick me up and look at your work." That was all the wedge her fellow-pupils needed. "_Aus_-tin Ma-_lone_! _Well!_" "Lucy, darling, I'd love to meet a real _spaceman_." "Roald, darling, would you mind very much if I stayed a moment?" "I'm certainly not going to miss this and I don't care if you mind or not, Roald, darling!" Malone was an impressive figure. Halvorsen thought: he looks as though he's been run through an esthetikon set for 'brawny' and 'determined.' Lucy made a hash of the introductions and the spaceman didn't rise to conversational bait dangled enticingly by the girls. In a clear voice, he said to Halvorsen: "I don't want to take up too much of your time. Lucy tells me you have some things for sale. Is there any place we can look at them where it's quiet?" The students made sulky exits. "Back here," said the artist. The girl and Malone followed him through the curtains. The spaceman made a slow circuit of the studio, seeming to repel questions. He sat down at last and said: "I don't know what to think, Halvorsen. This place stuns me. Do you _know_ you're in the Dark Ages?" _People who never have given a thought to Chartres and Mont St. Michel usually call it the Dark Ages_, Halvorsen thought wryly. He asked, "Technologically, you mean? No, not at all. My plaster's better, my colors are better, my metal is better--tool metal, not casting metal, that is." "I mean _hand_ work," said the spaceman. "Actually working by _hand_." The artist shrugged. "There have been crazes for the techniques of the boiler works and the machine shop," he admitted. "Some interesting things were done, but they didn't stand up well. Is there anything here that takes your eye?" "I like those dolphins," said the spaceman, pointing to a perforated terra-cotta relief on the wall. They had been commissioned by an architect, then later refused for reasons of economy when the house had run way over estimate. "They'd look bully over the fireplace in my town apartment. Like them, Lucy?" "I think they're wonderful," said the girl.