" I said enthusiastically, for I was glad to find
that the man had such a human side to him. "So would yours. In fact," I
continued, "how many faces one sees that are apparently hard, narrow,
limited, but the minute you get them three-quarters full they get wide,
large, almost boundless in----"

But the photographer had ceased to listen. He came over and took my head
in his hands and twisted it sideways. I thought he meant to kiss me, and
I closed my eyes.

But I was wrong.

He twisted my face as far as it would go and then stood looking at it.

He sighed again.

"I don't like the head," he said.

Then he went back to the machine and took another look.

"Open the mouth a little," he said.

I started to do so.

"Close it," he added quickly.

Then he looked again.

"The ears are _bad_," he said; "droop them a little more. Thank you. Now
the eyes. Roll them in under the lids. Put the hands on the knees,
please, and turn the face just a little upward. Yes, that's better. Now
just expand the lungs! So! And hump the neck--that's it--and just
contract the waist--ha!--and twist the hip up toward the elbow--now! I
still don't quite like the face, it's just a trifle _too_ full, but----"

I swung myself round on the stool.

"Stop," I said with emotion but, I think, with dignity. "This face is
_my_ face. It is not yours, it is mine. I've lived with it for forty
years and I know its faults. I know it's out of drawing. I know it
wasn't made for me, but it's _my_ face, the only one I have--" I was
conscious of a break in my voice but I went on--"such as it is, I've
learned to love it. And this is my mouth, not yours. These ears are
_mine_, and if your machine is too narrow--" Here I started to rise from
the seat.

Snick!

The photographer had pulled a string. The photograph taken. I could see
the machine still staggering from the shock.

"I think," said the photographer, pursing his lips in a pleased smile,
"that I caught the features just in a moment of animation."

"So!" I said bitingly,--"features, eh? You didn't think I could animate
them, I suppose? But let me see the picture."

"Oh, there's nothing to see yet," he said, "I have to develop the
negative first. Come back on Saturday and I'll let you see a proof of
it."

On Saturday I went back.

The photographer beckoned me in. I thought he seemed quieter and graver
than before. I think, too, there was a certain pride in his manner.

He unfolded the pro