“To-morrow,” said Leroux, standing up and fixing his eyes upon her lingeringly, “will be a red-letter day.  I have no right to complain, whilst such good friends remain to me—­such true friends."...

XXVI

“Our lady of the poppies”

A number of visitors were sprinkled about Olaf van Noord’s large and dirty studio, these being made up for the most part of those weird and nondescript enthusiasts who seek to erect an apocryphal Montmartre in the plains of Soho.  One or two ordinary mortals, representing the Press, leavened the throng, but the entire gathering—­“advanced” and unenlightened alike—­seemed to be drawn to a common focus:  a large canvas placed advantageously in the southeast corner of the studio, where it enjoyed all the benefit of a pure and equably suffused light.

Seated apart from his worshipers upon a little sketching stool, and handling a remarkably long, amber cigarette-holder with much grace, was Olaf van Noord.  He had hair of so light a yellow as sometimes to appear white, worn very long, brushed back from his brow and cut squarely all around behind, lending him a medieval appearance.  He wore a slight mustache carefully pointed; and his scanty vandyke beard could not entirely conceal the weakness of his chin.  His complexion had the color and general appearance of drawing-paper, and in his large blue eyes was an eerie hint of sightlessness.  He was attired in a light tweed suit cut in an American pattern, and out from his low collar flowed a black French knot.

Olaf van Noord rose to meet Helen Cumberly and Denise Ryland, advancing across the floor with the measured gait of a tragic actor.  He greeted them aloofly, and a little negro boy proffered tiny cups of China tea.  Denise Ryland distended her nostrils as her gaze swept the picture-covered walls; but she seemed to approve of the tea.

The artist next extended to them an ivory box containing little yellow-wrapped cigarettes.  Helen Cumberly smilingly refused, but Denise Ryland took one of the cigarettes, sniffed at it superciliously—­and then replaced it in the box.

“It has a most... egregiously horrible... odor,” she commented.

“They are a special brand,” explained Olaf van Noord, distractedly, “which I have imported for me from Smyrna.  They contain a small percentage of opium.”

“Opium!” exclaimed Denise Ryland, glaring at the speaker and then at Helen Cumberly, as though the latter were responsible in some way for the vices of the painter.

“Yes,” he said, reclosing the box, and pacing somberly to the door to greet a new arrival.

“Did you ever in all your life,” said Denise Ryland, glancing about her, “see such an exhibition... of nightmares?”

Certainly, the criticism was not without justification; the dauby-looking oil-paintings, incomprehensible water-colors, and riotous charcoal sketches which formed the mural decoration of the studio were distinctly “advanced.”  But, since the center of interest seemed to be the large canvas on the easel, the two moved to the edges of the group of spectators and began to examine this masterpiece.  A very puzzled newspaperman joined them, bending and whispering to Helen Cumberly: