Three hours later Hagar was hard at work in his studio. Only those who
knew him intimately could understand him in his present mood. His pale,
brooding, yet masculine face was flushed, the blue of his eyes was almost
black, his hair, usually in a Roman regularity about his strong brow, was
disorderly. He did not know the passage of time. He had had no breakfast.
He had read none of his letters--they lay in a little heap on his
mantelpiece--he was sketching upon the canvas the scene which had
possessed him for the past ten or eleven hours. An idea was being born,
and it was giving him the distress of bringing forth. Paper after paper he
had thrown away, but at last he had shaped the idea to please his severe
critical instinct, and was now sketching in the expression of the girl's
face. His brain was hot, his face looked tired, but his hand was steady,
accurate and cool--a shapely hand which the sun never browned, and he was
a man who loved the sun.

He drew back at last. "Yes, that's it," he said. "It's right, right. His
face shall come in later. But the heart of the thing is there."

The last sentence was spoken in a louder tone, so that some one behind him
heard. It was Mrs. Detlor. She had, with the young girl who had sat at her
feet the evening before, been shown into the outer room, had playfully
parted the curtains between the rooms and entered. She stood for a moment
looking at the sketch, fascinated, thrilled. Her yes filled with tears,
then went dry and hot, as she said in a loud whisper, "Yes, the heart of
the thing is there."

Hagar turned on her quickly, astonished, eager, his face shining with a
look superadded to his artistic excitement.

She put her finger to her lip, and nodded backward to the other room. He