human
Who is Jerry Paxton?
gpt
Every one asks that. Mrs. Brandon says,--
human
So, he is a painter. I seem to remember him faintly. Is he a good painter?
gpt
I'm not a critic.
human
You like him--the man, I mean?
gpt
Why--I don't know. I'm sorry for him, rather.
human
He doesn't look an object to inspire pity, Miss Salome. He seems to be a brilliant sort of person.
gpt
Yes, I know, but he's so sort of unprotected, like a little boy.
human
So that's why you're sorry for him? That's akin to saying that you're sorry for all men.
gpt
I am, rather, and all women.
human
You don't look a misogynist.
gpt
I am tremendously interested in life, but I feel always a little sorry for all of us who are trying to live it. Don't you?
human
Yes, but I'm old enough to be sorry for us, and you are not.
gpt
I'm rather old,
human
Where do you live?
gpt
In a queer sort of place, a tenement house down on----You ought to know who I am. I don't belong here at all,
human
So much the better.
gpt
I came at the last minute, as Mrs. Brendon said, because Mr. Paxton couldn't get any one else. I'm just a sort of general housekeeper in the studios around the Square. I take care of artists.
human
Studio mother, he smiled.
gpt
What else do you do?
human
I read a great deal, and I write.
gpt
Now we come to the gist of the matter. What do you write?
human
I don't know what made me say that. I never told that secret to any one before.
gpt
Thank you. But writing isn't a crime. If it is, half of New York is in the criminal class.
human
Please don't tell any one I said such a silly thing. What I do is just nothing.
gpt
It's a secret. I promise. Where do you publish?
human
I don't publish.
gpt
No? You're an author after my own heart. I'm a critic, you see.
human
Yes, I know.
gpt
Do you? You read me?
human
Yes, always.
gpt
When may I come and see you?
human
You may not come, please. I--I must go now.
gpt
I have frightened you away.
human
No, I only stayed on your account.
gpt
Let me take you home?
human
No, thanks. Good-night.
gpt
I warn you that I shall find you, Miss Jane Judd. I never lose people who interest me.
human
Mr. Christiansen, I'm Jerry Paxton. Mrs. Brendon said that you had Miss Judd with you. I'm looking for her.
gpt
She escaped. I tried hard enough to keep her, but she went home.
human
Went home?
gpt
So she said. Who is she?
human
Why, she's a girl who does things around the studios, I don't know her very well. She was good, wasn't she?
gpt
She was the only thing in the show; a most beautiful creature.
human
Funny thing, we've never thought she had any looks.
gpt
It isn't the obvious kind of thing that is fashionable now. Odd, haunting sort of face.
human
One thing is obvious. Cinderella did not like the ball,
gpt
Maybe it was the Prince she didn't like. Modern princes are so disappointing,