Baker's absence and begged me to let him take
my photograph--as a service to Art. If Aunt had been at home I wouldn't
have been permitted to see him. But the man was pleasant and gentlemanly,
and so sincere in his admiration that he won the way to my heart. I'm
afraid devotion is still so new to me that it's the surest road to my good
graces. He hesitated and stammered, blinking before my shining loveliness
as if blinded, as he offered to take the pictures for nothing, if he might
exhibit them afterwards; and at last I went to his studio, though I said
that his work must be for me only, and that I must pay for it.
I wonder at myself for yielding, for I didn't mean to have any photographs
until the experiment was quite finished--to mortify me in future with
their record of imperfection; but I'm so nearly perfect now that, really,
it's time I had something to tell me how I do look. Of course, as fast as
I can lay hands on them, I'm destroying every likeness of the old Nelly.
At the studio it was such a revelation--the care and intelligence the man
displayed, the skill of the posing--that when I got home full of the
subject and found Cadge waiting, I had to tell her all about it.
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