This summer in New York was her first taste of freedom.  The Chicago capitalist, after all his arrangements were made for sailing, had been compelled to go to Mexico to look after oil interests.  His sister knew an excellent singing master in New York.  Why should not a discreet, well-balanced girl like Miss Bower spend the summer there, studying quietly?  The capitalist suggested that his sister might enjoy a summer on Long Island; he would rent the Griffith’s place for her, with all the servants, and Eden could stay there.  But his sister met this proposal with a cold stare.  So it fell out, that between selfishness and greed, Eden got a summer all her own,—­which really did a great deal toward making her an artist and whatever else she was afterward to become.  She had time to look about, to watch without being watched; to select diamonds in one window and furs in another, to select shoulders and moustaches in the big hotels where she went to lunch.  She had the easy freedom of obscurity and the consciousness of power.  She enjoyed both.  She was in no hurry.

While Eden Bower watched the pigeons, Don Hedger sat on the other side of the bolted doors, looking into a pool of dark turpentine, at his idle brushes, wondering why a woman could do this to him.  He, too, was sure of his future and knew that he was a chosen man.  He could not know, of course, that he was merely the first to fall under a fascination which was to be disastrous to a few men and pleasantly stimulating to many thousands.  Each of these two young people sensed the future, but not completely.  Don Hedger knew that nothing much would ever happen to him.  Eden Bower understood that to her a great deal would happen.  But she did not guess that her neighbour would have more tempestuous adventures sitting in his dark studio than she would find in all the capitals of Europe, or in all the latitude of conduct she was prepared to permit herself.

V

One Sunday morning Eden was crossing the Square with a spruce young man in a white flannel suit and a panama hat.  They had been breakfasting at the Brevoort and he was coaxing her to let him come up to her rooms and sing for an hour.

“No, I’ve got to write letters.  You must run along now.  I see a friend of mine over there, and I want to ask him about something before I go up.”

“That fellow with the dog?  Where did you pick him up?” the young man glanced toward the seat under a sycamore where Hedger was reading the morning paper.

“Oh, he’s an old friend from the West,” said Eden easily.  “I won’t introduce you, because he doesn’t like people.  He’s a recluse.  Good-bye.  I can’t be sure about Tuesday.  I’ll go with you if I have time after my lesson.”  She nodded, left him, and went over to the seat littered with newspapers.  The young man went up the Avenue without looking back.

“Well, what are you going to do today?  Shampoo this animal all morning?” Eden enquired teasingly.