View PDF - Brown Library

heimer below, then led him up, past Leo's
very door, to the "studio." Once there,
she made him, in all the nonchalant
phrases she had so carefully prepared, the
offer of the Tuscan sketches. Her preliminary
chatter took longer than she had
realized it would; Mannheimer had been
late; and he had still not committed himself
when she heard unmistakable sounds
below. Windisch was there. She turned
to the dealer. "The specialist I spoke of
has come. I am afraid I must go down for
a little. But it's natural that you should
want some time to look them over."
"Quite so. I'll wait. I do want to look
them over." He pursed his lips judicially,
looked about for a seat, found one, and sat
down heavily as she left the room.
It did not take Windisch long to make
his examination. Marie Farrant watched
the minute-hand of her clock creep interminably
on through the brief period.
Miss Dall looked loyally out of the window
all the while, save that once or twice
she cast a keen, sidelong glance at the
woman who sat there, hands folded and
eyes fixed on the clock. She thought Mrs.
Farrant beautiful, but she suspected that
her looks would go suddenly and very
soon.
Eventually the great man came out.
The doctor beckoned to the nurse, and together
they went into Farrant's bedroom.
Mrs. Farrant was left face to face with
Windisch. She rose. "Well?"
He looked at her kindly. How she
feared their kindness! It so infallibly
meant that there was some special reason
for being kind.
He spoke, in the careful academic English
of the educated foreigner. " I think,
Mrs. Farrant, that there is very little
chance. The only hope for your husband
would be a grave operation; and it will be
only just to say to you that I should greatly
fear the result of that. The operation
would—how do you say?—either kill or
cure. I do not believe that it would cure.
But there is a slight possibility that it
would—one possibility, I might say, out
of one hundred."
"What do you advise?"
His brilliant blue eyes raked the little
sitting-room—as if to diagnose it—before
he answered slowly: "I cannot, in such a
case, advise. You, madam, must decide
Leda and the Swan 231
for yourself. I tell you the facts as I see
them."
"May I have a few hours to make up
my mind? I must see my husband."
He took out his watch. "At four
o'clock you may telephone to Doctor
Melcher. I would operate to-morrow.
I sail to Europe on Saturday."
"I will telephone. Thank you." She
shook hands with him, as the doctor came
out of Leo's room.
"Well?" he asked, as he crossed the
threshold.
"Doctor Windisch will tell you. May
I go in now?"
"Not for ten minutes, please. Miss
Dall will call you."
Windisch bowed, and the two physicians
went out. Ten minutes gave her
time to return to Mannheimer, and she
crept up-stairs.
The dealer shook his head at her as soon
as she entered the store-room. " Did Mr.
Farrant tell you I would want these?"
"He thought it very unlikely. But he
did say it might be worth your looking at
them. He hasn't seen them for years.
Of course they are only sketches."
"Oh, they're clever, but they must
have been done very young."
"They were." "As long ago as the
Garden of Eden," she might have added,
but she did not.
"Frankly, Mrs. Farrant, in spite of the
great respect I have personally for everything
Mr. Farrant ever touched, I don't
believe they're marketable. I'll keep an
eye out, and let you know, but— Only a
very acute critic would know they were
Farrants; and critics aren't so acute as
that about living artists. It doesn't pay
them to be. No—I don't see my way."
He gave his refusal very lightly, she
thought. In an instant, she saw why.
Mannheimer waved his hand to the opposite
wall, and as she turned she saw the
"Leda" stripped of the covering that, the
night before, she had hastily flung over it.
"Now, for that, Mrs. Farrant, I'll write
you a cheque on the spot, to any tune you
like—within reason. And 'within reason'
leaves you a big margin, too." He smiled.
She had a sharp sensation of cold about
her heart; as if, just in that spot, the
blood had chilled.
"That isn't for sale."