Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/240

 above is the arch and the parapet and the fog and the stars—and perhaps the little needle tip of the Saint Chapelle spire. . . I can't think of anything more foolish to paint, and yet it fills my head and I think it might be very arresting and charming."

"Who are you going to have for your nymphs—shop-girls?"

"I shan't need any models just yet. I've got to get the composition absolutely settled first."

"Wish you'd try me."

"Gladly—but you won't be angry if I say you're not just what I have in mind."

"Naturally not. I get that often. Tastes differ. I think that I have a very pretty body but lots of artists say that I look too much like a child."

"Well," said Edward, "one of these days when the time comes we'll have to see what we think."

While he was putting some chunks of coal into the stove Anne made a flank movement on his bedroom and returned with a double armful of clothes, socks and odds and ends which were really in a savage state of masculine neglect.

Anne seated herself and began to sort the possible from the impossible. She made three piles.

"These," she said, "are to be thrown away. Those only need to be laundered, and the rest I will