l of tea for her.
"I'll drink out of the bottle," she said. "I like to. Some of the girls
bring chocolate, but I think there's nothing like cold tea for the
brain. Chocolate's so clogging; so's milk; but sometimes I bring that;
it's glorious, drinking it out of the can." She tilted the bottle to
her lips, and half drained it at a draught. "I always feel that I'm
working with inspiration after I've had my cold tea. Of course they
won't let _you_ stay here long," she added.

"Why?" Cornelia fluttered back in alarm.

"When they see your work they'll see that you're fit for still-life, at
least."

"Oh!" said Cornelia, vexed at having been scared for nothing. "I guess
they won't be in any great hurry about it."

"How magnificent!" said Miss Maybough. "Of course, with that calm of
yours, you can wait, as if you had eternity before you. Do you know
that you are _terribly_ calm?"

Cornelia turned and gave her a long stare. Miss Maybough broke her bit
of cake in two, and offered her half, and Cornelia took it
mechanically, but ate her sandwich. "_I_ feel as if I had eternity
_behind_ me, I've been in the Preparatory so long."

On the common footing this drop to the solid ground gave, Cornelia
asked her how long.

"Well, it's the beginning of my second year, now. If they don't let me
go to round hands pretty soon, I shall have to see if I can't get the
form by modelling. That's the best way. I suppose it's my imagination;
it carries me away so, and I don't see the thing as it is before me;
that's what they say. But with the clay, I'll _have_ to, don't you
know. Well, you know some of the French painters model their whole
picture in clay and paint it, before they touch the canvas, any way. I
shall try it here awhile longer, and then if I can't get to the round
in any other way, I'll take to the clay. If sculpture concentrates you
more, perhaps I may stick to it altogether. Art is one, anyhow, and the
great thing is to _live_ it. Don't you think so?"

"I don't know," said Cornelia. "I'm not certain I know what you mean."

"You will," said Miss Maybough, "after you've been here awhile, and get
used to the atmosphere. I don't believe I really knew what life meant
before I came to the Synthesis. When you get to realizing the standards
of the Synthesis, then you begin to breathe freely for the first time.
I expect to pass the rest of my days here. I shouldn't care if I stayed
till I was thirty. How old are you?"

"I'm goin