r mention it? Why my dear sir"--

"Never mention it. It 's an abomination!"

"An abomination! My Culture!"

"Yours indeed!" cried Roderick. "It 's none of mine. I disown it."

"Disown it, if you please," said Mr. Leavenworth sternly, "but finish it
first!"

"I 'd rather smash it!" cried Roderick.

"This is folly, sir. You must keep your engagements."

"I made no engagement. A sculptor is n't a tailor. Did you ever hear of
inspiration? Mine is dead! And it 's no laughing matter. You yourself
killed it."

"I--I--killed your inspiration?" cried Mr. Leavenworth, with the accent
of righteous wrath. "You 're a very ungrateful boy! If ever I encouraged
and cheered and sustained any one, I 'm sure I have done so to you."

"I appreciate your good intentions, and I don't wish to be uncivil. But
your encouragement is--superfluous. I can't work for you!"

"I call this ill-humor, young man!" said Mr. Leavenworth, as if he had
found the damning word.

"Oh, I 'm in an infernal humor!" Roderick answered.

"Pray, sir, is it my infelicitous allusion to Miss Light's marriage?"

"It 's your infelicitous everything! I don't say that to offend you;
I beg your pardon if it does. I say it by way of making our rupture
complete, irretrievable!"

Rowland had stood by in silence, but he now interfered. "Listen to me,"
he said, laying his hand on Roderick's arm. "You are standing on the
edge of a gulf. If you suffer anything that has passed to interrupt
your work on that figure, you take your plunge. It 's no matter that
you don't like it; you will do the wisest thing you ever did if you make
that effort of will necessary for finishing it. Destroy the statue then,
if you like, but make the effort. I speak the truth!"

Roderick looked at him with eyes that still inexorableness made almost
tender. "You too!" he simply said.

Rowland felt that he might as well attempt to squeeze water from a
polished crystal as hope to move him. He turned away and walked into the
adjoining room with a sense of sickening helplessness. In a few moments
he came back and found that Mr. Leavenworth had departed--presumably in
a manner somewhat portentous. Roderick was sitting with his elbows on
his knees and his head in his hands.

Rowland made one more attempt. "You decline to think of what I urge?"

"Absolutely."

"There's one more point--that you shouldn't, for a month, go to Mrs.
Light's."

"I go there this evening."

"That too is an utter fo