The American Marquis by Nick Carter — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

in KF sen: | THE AMERICAN MARQUIS. | most sneering expression hovering about the nostrils of his _ clear-cut nose and the corners of his clear gray eyes. } ‘* Bah!” he muttered, scornfully thrusting his hands deep- er into the pockets of his blouse and stretching his legs out like a pair of compasses, ‘‘ I do nothing but dream! I love a shadow! Another man’s wife, it may be! Ye gods and little fishes! I see a woman once; I paint her picture from memory; I sitand dream. Ay, and starve, too. Clinton Hastings, you are an ass!” The cloth covering was angrily thrown over the ravishing face, and the artist went on muttering: : __ ** Better look at your rejected picture, Clinton, my boy.” dH disdainfuily: threw the cloth from a large piece of can- vas, disclosing 4 landscape view. } <. ‘Silently he dooked. at it for several minutes, holding a _ “Fans’p:sd as:to throw the light upon it. “s Suddenly he started, and turned his head to listen. He heard a soft footfall on the creaking stairs. _ A grim smile lighted the gray eyes as Clinton held a dia- logue with himself. ; _ *£A thief? ‘* Nothing to steal—except my picture—-— «A beggar? | : ‘Nothing to eat—except my picture. ~~) **A friend?” —* Mon Dieu! I have none—except my picture.” . Lhe first two times he made his answer he nodded jeer- ingly at his landscape, but the last time he turned toward his portrait with a half-savage, half-ecstatic expression. He was madly in love with a shadow! A knock sounded on his door, “© Come in!” _. The door opened wide, and a masked man, robed to his feet in a heavy cloak, stood framed in the door-way. Whatever the young artist may have felt, he betrayed no emotion, but speaking with the utmost coolness and with - ironical politeness, said: ** Ah! Box soir, monsieur. What shall it be—my money «or my life?” | : _ “Tf I wanted money I would not come here. If I wanted your life [ would wait a few days.” ‘* Aha, Monsieur le Diable, I see you know me well. Who are you, then?” id | a comicbooks.com: ;