Between Friends
Page 18He heard of Cecile now and then; Cosby had used her for a figure on
a fountain destined to embellish the estate of a wealthy young man
somewhere or other; Greer employed her for the central figure of
Innocence in his lovely and springlike decoration for some Western
public edifice. Quair had met her several times at Manhattan Beach
with various and assorted wealthy young men.
And one evening Guilder came alone to his studio and found him lying
on the lounge, his lank, muscular hands, still clay-stained, hanging
inert to the floor above an evening paper fallen there.
"Hello, Guilder," he said, without rising, as the big architect
shambled loosely through the open doorway.
"All right. It's hot."
"There's not a breath of air. It looks like a thunder-storm in the
west."
He pulled up a chair and sprawled on it, wiping his grave features
with a damp handkerchief.
"Drene," he said, "a philanthropic guy of sorts wants to add a
chapel to the church at Shallow Brook, Long Island. We've pinched
the job. Can you do an altar piece?"
"What sort?"
"They want a Virgin. It's to be called the Chapel of the Annunciation.
"I've so much on hand--"
"It's only a single figure-barring the dove. Why don't you do it?"
"There are plenty of other men--"
"They want you. There'll be no difficulty about terms."
Drene said with a shrug: "Terms are coming to mean less and less to me, Guilder. It costs
very little for me to live." He turned his gray, tired face. "Look
at this barn of a place; and go in there and look at my bedroom. I
have no use for what are known as necessities."
"Still, terms are terms--"
"Oh, yes. A truck may run over me. Even at that, I've enough to
that expanse of glass overhead. That's about all life holds for
me--a sheet of glass and four empty walls--and a fistfull of wet
clay."
"Are you a trifle morbid, Drene?"
"I'm not by any means; I merely prefer to live this way. I have
sufficient means to live otherwise if I wish. But this is enough of
the world to suit me, Guilder--and I can go to a noisy restaurant to
eat in when I'm so inclined--" He laughed a rather mirthless laugh
and glanced up, catching a peculiar expression in Guilder's eyes.