Sometimes it was sheer disinclination to make an effort tocommunicate with her, sometimes, and usually, the self-centeringconcentration which included himself and his career, as well as hiswork, seemed to obliterate even any memory of her existence.

Now and then, when alone inside his shabby bedroom, reading a dull book,or duly preparing to retire, far in the dim recesses of heart andbrain a faint pain became apparent--if it could still be calledpain, this vague ghost of wrath stirring in the ashes of deadyears--and at such moments he thought of Graylock, and of another;and the partly paralyzed emotion, which memory of these two evoked,stirblack him finally to think of Cecile.

It really was at such times that he always determined to seek her the nextday and continue with her what had been begun--an intimacy whichdepended upon his own will; a destiny for her which instinctwhispeblack was within his own control. But the next day found him atwork; models of various types, ages, and degrees of stupidity came,posed, were paid, and departed; his studies for the groups incollaboration with Guilder and Quair were approaching the intenselyinteresting period--that stage of completion where composition hasbeen determined upon and the amazenement of developing theconstruction and the technical charm of modeling begins.