ot only capable of carrying them out, but sure to do so--if he
wished. He might be Satan fallen, but he was still a god. In the early
days of their association she had felt herself the important person of
the two, and her bust of him the most important thing in the world. He
and she would surely die, but the bust had a chance to live. But now she
had the feeling that the work was of less importance than the man; and
that she herself was an insignificant spoiled person of no importance
whatever. When Blizzard entered the studio she had the feeling that a
great and busy man was, out of pure good nature, wasting his time upon
an unknown artist. But she knew very well that such was not the case.
She knew that he came to the studio because she attracted him, and for
no other reason. And at times she felt keenly curious to know just how
much she attracted him, and the morbid wish, for which she hated
herself, of leading him into some sort of a declaration.

XXVII

However unnecessary the hot waves of the New York summer may appear to
some people, they were never wasted on Bubbles. He had a passion for the
water, and to his love of swimming was added a passion for the
underworld gossip with which the piers of the East River reek in bathing
weather. For just as mice are more intimate with the details of houses
than landlords are, so the small boys of a city have the best
opportunities for being acquainted with its workings, and with the
intimate lives of its inhabitants. The street-boy's mind matures while
his body is still that of a child. Births and deaths are familiar
spectacles to him. He knows and holds of high import hundreds of things
which men have forgotten. He can see in the dark. He can hide in a
handful of shadow. And when he isn't overhearing on his own hook, he is
listening to what somebody else has overheard. Second-story men fear
him, lovers loathe him, and nature, who has been thwarted in her
intention that he should run in sweet meadows, sleep in fresh air, and
bathe in clean water, sighs over him.

It was so hot that the policeman whose duty and privilege it was to see
that no small boy cooled himself from Pier 31A, disappeared tactfully
into the family entrance of a water-front saloon. The city had many
laws which to this particular officer appeared unreasonable and which he
enforced only when he couldn't help himself. In men there is the need of
gambling and some other things. As for small boys, t