"No, it isn't," returned my companion gravely. "You want a thing very much and you get it, and have no end of fun. I don't want it and don't get it, and don't have the fun. So it makes life very dull."
"Well, I _am_ very jolly," I admitted contentedly. "I think really, artists--people with the artist's brain--do enjoy everything tremendously. They have such a much wider field of desires, as you say; and fewer limitations. They 'weave the web Desire,' as Swinburne says, 'to snare the bird Delight.'"
"They get into a mess sometimes," said Morley sulkily; "as you will with that girl if you don't look out. Here we are at the church. There's a very fine picture inside; you'd like to see it, I expect."
We turned into the church and rested on the chairs for a few minutes, enjoying the cool dark interior.
At six o'clock exactly I was in the little mud-yard again, before the tea-shop; having sent Morley off to his dinner on board. I felt elated: all my pulses were beating merrily. I was keenly alive. Morley was right in what he said. An artist is Nature's pet, and she has mixed all his blood with joy. Natural, instinctive joy, swamped occasionally by melancholy, but always there surging up anew. Joy in himself--joy in his powers--joy in life.
I knocked as arranged, and Suzee herself let me in. She had been burning spice, apparently, before one of the idols that stood in each corner of the tea-shop; for the whole place smelt of it.
"What have you been doing?" I said. "Holding service here?"
"Only burning spice-spills to chase away the evil spirits," replied Suzee.
"They always come in with the white foreign devils," she returned with engaging frankness.
"Well, Suzee, you are unkind," I expostulated. "Is that how you think of me?"
"The devil is always welcomed by a woman," she answered sweetly--her eyes were black lakes with fire moving in their depths--"that is one of our proverbs. It is quite true."
The lips curled and the creamy satin of the cheeks dimpled and the blue earrings shook against her neck.
"What lovely earrings," I said, smiling down upon her, and put up my hand gently to touch one. She did not draw back nor seem to resent my action.
"You think them pretty? I have others upstairs. Will you come up and see my jewellery?"