He had never had it in him to be a great artist, but he had had
the facility which goes to make a good worker of the second class. He
had it still. Given the time for hard study, it was still in him to
take his proper place among painters.
But time for study was out of his reach now. He must set to work at
once, without a day's delay, on something which would bring him
immediate money. The reflection brought his mind back abruptly to the
practical consideration of the future.
Before him, as he stood there, the ragged battlements of New York
seemed to frown down on him with a cold cruelty that paralysed his
mind. He had seen them a hundred times before. They should have been
familiar and friendly. But this morning they were strange and sinister.
The skyline which daunts the emigrant as he comes up the bay to his new
home struck fear into Kirk's heart.
He turned away and began to walk up and down the deck.
He felt tired and lonely. For the first time he realized just what it
meant to him that he should never see Hank again. It had been hard,
almost impossible, till now to force his mind to face that fact. He had
winced away from it. But now it would not be avoided. It fell upon him
like a shadow.
Hank had filled a place of his own in Kirk's life. Theirs had been one
of those smooth friendships which absence cannot harm.
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