Chapter 7 - Page 2

now, Maisie, if you never speak it again! Do I--does this worrying bore
you?'

'No. It does not.'

'You'd tell me if it did?'

'I should let you know, I think.'

'Thank you. The other thing is fatal. But you must learn to forgive a man
when he's in love. He's always a nuisance. You must have known that?'

Maisie did not consider the last question worth answering, and Dick was
forced to repeat it.

'There were other men, of course. They always worried just when I was
in the middle of my work, and wanted me to listen to them.'

'Did you listen?'

'At first; and they couldn't understand why I didn't care. And they used
to praise my pictures; and I thought they meant it. I used to be proud of
the praise, and tell Kami, and--I shall never forget--once Kami laughed
at me.'

'You don't like being laughed at, Maisie, do you?'

'I hate it. I never laugh at other people unless--unless they do bad work.

Dick, tell me honestly what you think of my pictures generally,--of
everything of mine that you've seen.'

'"Honest, honest, and honest over!"' quoted Dick from a catchword of
long ago. 'Tell me what Kami always says.'

Maisie hesitated. 'He--he says that there is feeling in them.'

'How dare you tell me a fib like that? Remember, I was under Kami for
two years. I know exactly what he says.'

'It isn't a fib.'

'It's worse; it's a half-truth. Kami says, when he puts his head on one
side,--so,--"Il y a du sentiment, mais il n'y a pas de parti pris."' He rolled
the r threateningly, as Kami used to do.

'Yes, that is what he says; and I'm beginning to think that he is right.'

'Certainly he is.' Dick admitted that two people in the world could do and
say no wrong. Kami was the man.

'And now you say the same thing. It's so disheartening.'

'I'm sorry, but you asked me to speak the truth. Besides, I love you too
much to pretend about your work. It's strong, it's patient sometimes,--not
always,--and sometimes there's power in it, but there's no special reason
why it should be done at all. At least, that's how it strikes me.'

'There's no special reason why anything in the world should ever be
done. You know that as well as I do. I only want success.'

'You're going the wrong way to get it, then. Hasn't Kami ever told you
so?'

'Don't quote Kami to me. I want to know what you think. My work's bad,
to begin with.'

'I didn't say that, and I don't think it.'

'It's amateurish, then.'

'That it most certainly is not. You're a work-woman, darling, to your
boot-heels, and I respect you for that.'

'You don't laugh at me behind my back?'

'No, dear. You see,