"
The artist, too, heard voices, just without the door.
Mrs. Taine moved swiftly across the room toward her wrap. Aaron King,
going to his easel, drew the velvet curtain to hide the picture.
Chapter IX
Conrad Lagrange's Adventure
Certainly, when Conrad Lagrange fled so precipitately from Louise Taine,
that afternoon, he had no thought that the trivial incident was to mark
the beginning of a new era in his life; or that it would work out in the
life of his dearest friend such far reaching results. His only purpose was
to escape an hour of the frothy vaporings of the poor, young creature who
believed herself so interested in art and letters, and who succeeded so
admirably in expressing the spirit of her environment and training.
With his pipe and book, the novelist hid himself in the rose garden;
finding a seat on the ground, in an angle of the studio wall and the
Ragged Robin hedge, where any one entering the enclosure would be least
likely to observe him. Czar, heartily approving of his master's action,
stretched himself comfortably under the nearest rose-bush, and waited
further developments.
Presently, the novelist heard his friend, with Mrs. Taine, come from the
house and enter the studio.
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