Page:Angna Enters - Among the Daughters.djvu/367

 I'd be good company. I am so tired these days I don't sleep well even though Ilona let me have the week off to get a head start on Figente's books. You never saw so many! Boxes and boxes have been dumped in the studio and except for my table and chair the room is so filled I'm black and blue from crawling over boxes. On top of that, Figente's been in bed all week so Denis isn't any help and you know Hal!" she ended lamely.

"That's all right, no wonder you have circles under your eyes," Lucy sympathized.

"I haven't—it's this ghastly light. I should think Cleo would fix that shade," Vida said irritably.

"I forgot to tell her," Lucy said indifferently. "I guess those flowers ought to be thrown out too. How do you like Clem's painting there, or should I put it between the windows? It came this morning. Art shows don't last long, do they, only two weeks after all that work?"

"Yes, it's outrageous. Why not put it over the buffet?"

"I never thought of that. I tried to put it in an important place in case he sees it. To tell you the truth, I don't think it looks at home here. I'd like to see it in Aunt Mabel's dining room, but his feelings might be hurt."

"That bread sure was stale," contributed Cleo.

"Shut up, you don't know anything about art. And throw out those flowers and pick up this stuff." She pointed to the underclothes.

"I'll put them in the kitchen and do it in the morning, you know I got a date now," Cleo said aggrieved.

They waited in uncomfortable silence until the door closed.

"I may have to fire her again, she comes and goes when she feels like it," Lucy said, tapping her foot nervously.

"That's an old story. You two always make it up."

"So far! If the studio will be a library where will Figente do his sculpture?"

"He seems sort of finished with that, but perhaps because he's been sick. I guess upset too. When I was working one day Hal came in, and was he hysterical! He said Figente was a mean old thing and had wrecked his big chance. It seems Simone and Jacques split up and she asked Hal to play for her in Paris. Figente, he said, hit the ceiling, and phoned Simone to come down. He told her Hal already was committed to play at your recital with that harp quartet he subsidizes. That was the first Hal heard of it! Me too—you never Rh