Then you admit you're a
great painter?"
"Of course I'm a great painter!" shouted Hunt. "Who should know it
better than I do?"
"Then what's a great painter doing down here? What's the game you're
trying to put over, posing as--"
"Listen, son," Hunt grinned. "You've called me and I've got to show my
cards. Only you mustn't ever tell--nor must Maggie; the Duchess
doesn't talk, anyway. No need bothering you just now with a lot of
details about myself. It's enough to say that people wouldn't pay me
except when I did the usual pretty rot; no one believed in the other
stuff I wanted to do. I wanted to get away from that bunch; I wanted
to do real studies of human people, with their real nature showing
through. So I beat it. Understand so far?"
"But why pose as a dub down here?"
"I never started the yarn that I was a dub. The people who looked at
my work, and laughed, started that talk. I didn't shout out that I was
a great artist for the mighty good reason that if I had, and had been
believed, the people who posed for me either wouldn't have done it or
would have been so self-conscious that they would have tried to look
like some one else, and would never have shown me themselves at all.
Thinking me a joke, they just acted natural. Which, young man, is
about all you need to know.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54