"You have all done
not so badly," he would say. "But you shall remember that it is not enough to
have the method, and the art, and the power, nor even that which is touch, but
you shall have also the conviction that nails the work to the wall. Of the so
many I taught,"--here the students would begin to unfix drawing-pins or get
their tubes together,--"the very so many that I have taught, the best was
Binat. All that comes of the study and the work and the knowledge was to him
even when he came. After he left me he should have done all that could be done
with the colour, the form, and the knowledge. Only, he had not the conviction.
So today I hear no more of Binat,--the best of my pupils,--and that is long
ago. So today, too, you will be glad to hear no more of me. Continuez,
mesdemoiselles, and, above all, with conviction."
He went into the garden to smoke and mourn over the lost Binat as the pupils
dispersed to their several cottages or loitered in the studio to make plans for
the cool of the afternoon.
Maisie looked at her very unhappy Melancolia, restrained a desire to grimace
before it, and was hurrying across the road to write a letter to Dick, when she
was aware of a large man on a white troop-horse.
Pages:
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060
1061
1062
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069
1070
1071
1072