ssipate in
hot beef tea, I'll give you a lesson on models."

Zura painted so graphically a word picture of her father's studio it
made me laugh, for I knew well enough that such clotheless creatures
would not be permitted outside the Cannibal islands. The sheriff would
take them up.

As Zura continued her wild exaggerations a look of horror covered Miss
Gray's face.

"Oh! Zury!" she cried. "Surely those ladies had on part of a dress."

"No! angel child, not even a symptom. Daddy didn't want to paint their
clothes. He wanted to copy the curves that grew on the people."

Jane covered her eyes and spoke in a voice filled with trouble.

"Dearie! I've lived in America a long time but I didn't know there were
people like that! I'm really afraid they aren't selling their souls for
the highest price."

"Daddy wasn't dealing in souls, but he did pay a pretty high price for
lines."

Jane, unsatisfied, asked why her father couldn't use statues for his
model and Zura seeing how troubled her friend was for the souls of the
undressed, asked with eager sympathy to be allowed to see the plans for
the soon-to-be built hospital.

The ground for the building had been purchased and work was well on the
way. Shortly the roof-raising ceremony would take place. In this part of
the country it is the most important event in building. Jane said that
we were all expected to attend these exercises, even if we were so
afraid of the criminal quarters that we had to take our hearts in our
hands to enter.

Brown head and gray were bent together over blueprints and long columns
of figures. Both maid and woman were frail and delicate tools to be used
in the up-building of wrecked lives. Yet by the skill of the Master
Mechanic these instruments were not only working wonders in other lives,
but also something very beautiful in their own.

Zura took untiring interest in all Jane's plans for the
after-festivities of the occasion. Most of their evenings were spent in
arranging programs. I took no part. My hands were full of my own work
and, while they talked, I paused to listen and was delighted not only in
the transformation of Zura, but also in my own enlarged understanding of
her.

I loved all young things, and youth itself, but I had never been near
them before. With tender interest I watched every mood of Zura's,
passing from an untamed child to a lovely girl. Sometimes her bounding
spirits seemed overlaid by a soft enchantment. She woul