"  Why  don't  you  stay  and  have  breakfast  with  me  ?  "
Cornelia  asked.  "You'll  be  sick."


THE    COAST    OF    BOHEMIA.  197

"  Breakfast  ?  Aiid  ruin  everything  !  I  would  rather
never  have  any  breakfast !  "  She  took  up  the  paper
bag  again,  and  explored  it  with  an  eager  hand,  while
she  stared  absently  at  Cornelia.  "  Ah !  I  thought
there  was  one  left !  What  mites  of  things."  She  put
the  last  ginger-snap  into  her  mouth,  and  with  a  flying
kiss  to  Cornelia  as  she  passed,  she  flashed  out  of  the
door,  and  down  the  stairs.
XXV.
AFTER  all,  Ludlow  decided  that  he  would  paint
Charmian  in  her  own  studio,  with  the  accessories  of
her  peculiar  pose  in  life  about  her ;  they  were  facti
tious,  but  they  were  genuine  expressions  of  her  char
acter  ;  he  could  not  realize  her  so  well  away  from
there.
The  first  afternoon  was  given  to  trying  her  in  this
light  and  that,  and  studying  her  from  different  points.
She  wished  to  stand  before  her  easel,  in  her  Synthesis
working-dress,  with  her  palette  on  her  thumb,  and  a
brush  in  her  other  hand.  He  said  finally,  "  Why
not  ?  "  and  Cornelia  made  a  tentative  sketch  of  her.
At  the  end  of  the  afternoon  he  waited  while  the  girl
was  putting  on  her  hat  in  Charmian's  room,  where  she
smiled  into  the  glass  at  Charmian's  face  over  her
shoulder,  thinking  of  the  intense  fidelity  her  friend
had  shown  throughout  to  her  promise  of  unconscious
ness.
