"Candy man," said she, "go away. When I laugh Sidonie pulls my hair.
I can but laugh while you remain there."
"Here is a note for Mademoiselle," said Felice, coming to the window
in the room.
"There is no justice," said the candy man, lifting the handle of his
cart and moving away.
Three yards he moved, and stopped. Loud shriek after shriek came from
the window of Mademoiselle. Quickly he ran back. He heard a body
thumping upon the floor and a sound as though heels beat alternately
upon it.
"What is it?" he called.
Sidonie's severe head came into the window.
"Mademoiselle is overcome by bad news," she said. "One whom she loved
with all her soul has gone--you may have heard of him--he is Monsieur
Ives. He sails across the ocean to-morrow. Oh, you men!"
XIV
SQUARING THE CIRCLE
At the hazard of wearying you this tale of vehement emotions must be
prefaced by a discourse on geometry.
Nature moves in circles; Art in straight lines. The natural is
rounded; the artificial is made up of angles. A man lost in the snow
wanders, in spite of himself, in perfect circles; the city man's
feet, denaturalized by rectangular streets and floors, carry him ever
away from himself.
The round eyes of childhood typify innocence; the narrowed line of
the flirt's optic proves the invasion of art. The horizontal mouth
is the mark of determined cunning; who has not read Nature's most
spontaneous lyric in lips rounded for the candid kiss?
Beauty is Nature in perfection; circularity is its chief attribute.
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