n a true beacon or only fool's fire.

A resolution she came to within twenty-four hours after Galbraith left
was that she would not wait passively for his letter summoning her to
New York. She'd go straight to work (and fill in the disconcerting
emptiness of her days at the same time) preparing herself for the
profession of stage costume designing. She wasn't entirely clear in her
mind as to just what steps this preparation should consist in, but the
fact that Galbraith had once asked to see her sketches and had seemed
amazed to learn that she hadn't any, gave her the hint that she might do
well to learn to draw. She knew, of course, that she couldn't learn very
much in the fortnight or so she supposed would elapse before Galbraith's
letter came in, but she could learn a little. And anything to do that
went in the right direction was better than blankly doing nothing.

Her first adventure in this direction was downright ludicrous, as she
was aware without being able to summon the mood to appreciate it. The
girls she'd known, back in the Edgewater days, who had ambitions to
learn to draw went to the Art Institute. So Rose, summoning her courage
for a sortie across the avenue, want there too, and felt, as she climbed
the steps between the lions, a little the way Christian did in similar
circumstances. After waiting a while she was shown into the office of an
affable young man, with efficient looking eye-glasses and a keen sort of
voice, and told him with admirable brevity that she wanted to learn to
draw, as a preliminary to designing costumes.

He approved this ambition cordially enough and made it evident that the
resources of the institute were entirely adequate to her needs. But
then, just about simultaneously, she made the discovery that the course
he was talking about was one of from three to five years' duration, and
he, that the time immediately at her disposal amounted to something like
a fortnight. They were mutually too completely disconcerted to do
anything, for a moment, but stare at each other. When he found his
breath he told her that he was afraid they couldn't do anything for her.

"There are places, of course, here in town (there's one right down the
street) where they'll take you on for a month, or a week, or a day, if
you like; let you begin working in oil in the life class the vary first
morning, if you've a notion to. But we don't believe in that
get-rich-quick sort of business. We believe in layin