1
THE memory of that portrait left Felix bewildered and irritated. It
seemed that no one else saw in it quite what he had seen. Rose-Ann
praised it—but with some reserve which made him feel that she did not
really like it. Clive was delighted with the certainty with which the
painter had captured his characteristic gesture.... Only he himself,
apparently, saw it as a criticism, profound and harsh....
The painter herself least of all saw it as a criticism. “Is that what
you really think of me?” he had asked her.
“I don’t think when I paint pictures,” she had said. “I’m too busy
working out the problems of form and colour. Don’t you like it?”
“I like it as a picture. I don’t like it as a—a prophecy,” he said.
“A prophecy? Oh, there you come with your literary interpretations.
Can’t you forget that stuff, and learn to look at a picture as a
picture?”
She had ceased to be the Sybil, and become again the careless bohemian
girl-artist, talking the talk of her tribe.... Pictures were just
pictures—yes, he had heard that before.
Morose and fretful, he walked up and down in the studio in the evening,
rejecting Rose-Ann’s plans for other entertainment; or sat at his desk,
exasperatedly trying to force himself to begin work on some half-formed
idea for a play. He was angry at himself for being the indecisive,
inadequate figure of that painting. He saw now what being an artist
meant—the calm energy, the technical erudition, the vast patience that
was needed. He wished to be that kind of person. And the more he wished
it, the more weak and petulant he seemed to himself. And what must he
seem to Rose-Ann? She must despise him in her heart....
For a week he fidgeted and fumed about the studio, ashamed of his
childish behaviour and yet unable to control it. He wondered why
Rose-Ann did not tell him what she really thought of him.... It was as
if he were trying, by a more and more outrageous parade of his weakness,
to force her to break silence and speak out.
Late one afternoon, when he had crumpled up the sheet of paper on which
he had been trying to write, and thrown it on the floor with a silly
gesture of failure, she put down her sewing and came up to him.
She put her hand on his shoulder.
“What is the matter, Felix, dear?” she asked.
He drew himself away. “I wish you would let me alone,” he said.
“Very well,” Rose-Ann said gently, and went and put on her hat and cloak
and left the studio.
2
For a moment he sat there, looking at the door through which she had
gone with a sudden sense of utter desolation.
They had had quarrels before, but this was different. He had driven her
away.... It would serve him right if she never came back....
Why had he been making such a fool of himself? Why had he been behaving
like a silly child?
And all at once he felt that he knew the answer.... He was worrying
about that damned job of his.
Rose-Ann had taken it for granted that he was secure in his position. He
had pretended to weigh his chances, pro and con.... And all the while he
had been deeply convinced that he was about to lose his momentary
distinction. Hawkins’s play was being tried out again, this week. It
would fail, he would give up his foolishness, return to Chicago, and
Felix would be back precisely where he had started. That, of course,
though he had not told Rose-Ann, was why he had felt she was right in
not wanting to have children right away.
It was this impending crisis in his career that secretly worried him.
For nearly a year he had been a dramatic critic—and he was about to lose
his job. It was a degradation intolerable to contemplate, but impossible
to prevent. How could he prevent it? In romantic novels, the hero wins
his spurs. But there were, so to speak, only one pair of critical spurs
at the disposal of the Chronicle, and they belonged to Hawkins! In a
magazine story, Felix would go over to another paper and get a better
job. But Felix disbelieved in his ability to hold with any distinction
any ordinary reporter’s job. By some fluke he had made good as a
dramatic critic. He saw people on the elevated turning the paper inside
out to read first of all his column about the new play. He knew he had
made good. But—dramatic editorships do not grow on blackberry bushes;
dramatic critics die in their shoes at an advanced age. Hawkins’s folly
had given him such a chance as would never happen again in a hundred
years.
A chance? A brief hour of glory. An hour for Rose-Ann to be proud of
him, to believe that he had risen by force of character to these
heights, that he would continue to rise.... She would find out that it
had been mere luck. She would find out that he could not even keep a job
as a dramatic critic, let alone become a playwright. She would discover
him for what he was—a weak, helpless, scared child.
That was why he had been behaving like a fool before her—to show her
beforehand that he didn’t amount to anything.
Suddenly he commenced to laugh. The mood of the last week had
vanished—it merely seemed funny now. Another attack of moon-calfishness,
that was all! That painter-girl had awed him with her astounding
technique, made him feel incompetent and helpless—thrown him back into a
state of adolescent self-distrust. Yes, it was her fault, the
pretentious hussy! And what, after all her fussing, did that picture of
hers amount to? An ordinary portrait, that was all, with a touch of easy
caricature in it.... Damn her!
And what if Hawkins did come back and take away his laurels? There were
other jobs in the world. If not in Chicago, then—
Yes, in New York....
It didn’t make any difference what happened. He had been silly to worry
about things. He would never worry again about anything. Rose-Ann was
right. One must live fearlessly....
He wished Rose-Ann would come back....
3
The door opened, and she was there. He sprang up.
She shut the door behind her and put her back against it, and her hands,
as if to support herself.
Felix stood staring at her in surprise. She was pale, and she had a
heroic air, somehow. She tried to speak—twice—and made no sound, only a
movement of the throat and lips.
“What’s the matter?” he asked anxiously, going up to her.
She put out her hands, as if to hold him away, and let them rest on his
shoulders. She looked at him earnestly.
“Felix,” she said. “Felix.... I know what is troubling you.”
“Yes?” he said, confusedly.
“It’s that girl. You’re in love with her, Felix. Well—I keep my promise.
You—you can—”
“What girl?” he asked, amazed.
“Dorothy!” she cried. “You’re in love with her. I knew it all along.”
“What!”
“Yes. I can’t bear to see you unhappy. I’d rather—”
He laughed and took her in his arms. “Little fool!” he said. “Little
silly child! Dear little idiot!”
She burst out crying, and put her head on his shoulder.
“I’m not in love with anybody, you goose, except you,” he said. “What
made you think I was? I suppose I have been acting crazy. I know I have.
But it’s a different kind of craziness. I was worrying about—my job.”
“Your job?” She looked up from his shoulder. “Have you heard already? I
just left Clive at the corner.”
“Clive? Heard what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“He was coming down to tell you the news. You don’t know it? Well—a
telegram came this afternoon. From Hawkins. He’s resigned. And you’ve
been appointed in his place.”
“Really!”
“Yes, of course. I knew that was what would happen. But Felix—are you
sure?” She meant about Dorothy.
“You’re crazier than I am, Rose-Ann—that’s all.”
“Well—” and she dried her tears. “I guess I am a fool.... But Felix—I
left Clive at the corner drug-store. I was very mysterious, and said he
mustn’t come here to the studio, but that he was to wait there for me.”
“What for?”
“I—told him I wanted him to help me celebrate an—occasion. But—”
“What kind of occasion?” Felix asked sternly. “Did you tell him any of
this nonsensical—”
“No, Felix, I didn’t tell him anything. But—but we can still celebrate
an occasion, Felix.”
“You mean my job?”
“No—I mean the—the anniversary of our marriage....”
“You poor abused darling! What an idiot I am!” And he took her in his
arms again.
“I’ll wash my face, and be sensible now,” she said. “You go and get
Clive, and—and we’ll celebrate!”
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