Laughing Torso

LAUGHING TORSO

" I think that young man looks very interesting and
I should like to meet him/3 To my embarrassment
she darted over to him and brought him across. He
seemed very shy and did not say very much. Zad-
kine came in later and asked us all back to his
studio. Beatrice, I, and the young man went
along. Zadkine had a studio in the Rue Rousselet.
The young man and I sat on the roof among the
chimney-pots until the morning. I thought him
very interesting and romantic. We afterwards went
and sat in a cafe opposite the Gare Montparnasse.
The young man said his name was Edgar. He
would not disclose his surname. He said that he
was a Norwegian and understood Scandinavian, but
refused to speak it. He talked perfect French and
German. I was very much intrigued with him.
He appeared to be always broke and said that he
lived in La Ruche, near the Porte de Versailles.
He talked of the wonderful furniture and library
that he had there. I was not asked to visit him.
One evening he came back to my studio in the
Boulevard Edgar Quinet. He stayed there with me.
There was a small window very high up near the
roof, and every night a black cat would jump up
from the roof outside and sit there. When the moon
was full it rose just behind the cat and silhouetted it.
The evening he came the cat appeared, and seeing
that I was not alone, vanished, and never came
back again.
The young man appeared to be a complete
mystery. I was by this time desperately in love
with him. Whether he liked me or not I have never
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