Carnacs Folly | Page 5

since then; but Junia
remained as she was the joyous day when boyhood took on the first
dreams of manhood.
Life was a queer thing, and he had not yet got his bearings in it. He had
a desire to reform the world and he wanted to be a great painter or
sculptor, or both; and he entered New York with a new sense developed.
He was keen to see, to do, and to feel. He wanted to make the world
ring with his name and fame, yet he wanted to do the world good also,
if he could. It was a curious state of mind for the English boy, who
talked French like a native and loved French literature and the French
people, and was angry with those English-Canadians who were so
selfish they would never learn French.
Arrived in New York he took lodgings near old Washington Square,
where there were a few studios near the Bohemian restaurants and a life
as nearly continental as was possible in a new country. He got in touch
with a few artists and began to paint, doing little scenes in the Bowery
and of the night-life of New York, and visiting the Hudson River and
Long Island for landscape and seascape sketches.
One day he was going down Broadway, and near Union Square he
saved a girl from being killed by a street-car. She had slipped and fallen
on the track and a car was coming. It was impossible for her to get
away in time, and Carnac had sprung to her and got her free. She

staggered to her feet, and he saw she was beautiful and foreign. He
spoke to her in French and her eyes lighted, for she was French. She
told him at once that her name was Luzanne Larue. He offered to get a
cab and take her home, but she said no, she was fit to walk, so he went
with her slowly to her home in one of the poor streets on the East side.
They talked as they went, and Carnac saw she was of the lower
middle-class, with more refinement than was common in that class, and
more charm. She was a fascinating girl with fine black eyes, black hair,
a complexion of cream, and a gift of the tongue. Carnac could not see
that she was very subtle. She seemed a marvel of guilelessness. She had
a wonderful head and neck, and as he was planning a picture of an early
female martyr, he decided to ask her to sit to him.
Arrived at her humble home, he was asked to enter, and there he met
her father, Isel Larue, a French monarchist who had been exiled from
Paris for plotting against the Government. He was handsome with
snapping black eyes, a cruel mouth and a droll and humorous tongue.
He was grateful to Carnac for saving his daughter's life. Coffee and
cigarettes were produced, and they chatted and smoked while Carnac
took in the surroundings. Everything was plain, but spotlessly clean,
and he learned that Larue made his living by doing odd jobs in an
electric firm. He was just home from his work. Luzanne was employed
every afternoon in a milliner's shop, but her evenings were free after
the housework was done at nine o'clock. Carnac in a burst of
enthusiasm asked if she would sit to him as a model in the mornings.
Her father instantly said, of course she would.
This she did for many days, and sat with her hair down and bared neck,
as handsome and modest as a female martyr should. Carnac painted her
with skill. Sometimes he would walk with her to lunch and make her
eat something sustaining, and they talked freely then, though little was
said while he was painting her. At last one day the painting was
finished, and she looked up at him wistfully when he told her he would
not need another sitting. Carnac, overcome by her sadness, put his arms
round her and kissed her mouth, her eyes, her neck ravenously. She
made only a slight show of resistance. When he stopped she said: "Is
that the way you keep your word to my father? I am here alone and you

embrace me-- is that fair?"
"No, it isn't, and I promise I won't do it again, Luzanne. I am sorry. I
wanted our friendship to benefit us both, and now I've spoiled it all."
"No, you haven't spoiled it all," said Luzanne with a sigh, and she
buttoned up the neck of her blouse, flushing slightly as she did so. Her
breast heaved and suddenly she burst into tears. It was evident she
wanted Carnac to comfort her, perhaps to kiss her again, but he did not
do