LIFE CLASS

Conclusion of a story by JAN ADDISON

SYNOPSIS: Vanessa, an art student living with her strict elder step sister, Mag, has become interested in Garda Parton, attractive model at the art institute Van attends.

After a bitter argument with Mag over wearing lipstick, Van arrives late for her class and has to sit way in the back. This turns out to be fortunate for Van since the model, Garda, is posing in the nude. The 'life' pose had been announced by the instructor, TenBrinck, before Van had arrived.

Completely unstrung by the sight of "the small perfect dark-olive body that was somehow gaunt without being bony..." Van finds it impossible to pick up a brush.

"...I have no ver seen anyone naked before...except myself...and only pieces of myself at one time, standing on a chair in the bathroom... What am I to do? Oh, what can I do?"

Van sits immobile during the 20-minute period. Finally TenBrinck announces a rest for the model and then begins a tour of the room. "Slowly but inevitably the quiet old Dutchman, dropping kind or sharp or humorous comments as he inspected canvases, reached her side and saw hers empty..."

For the first time this year he looked directly, sharply, at her face. "Come with me a moment," he said in an undertone, and led her the short distance to his studiooffice. There he almost completely closed the door. "Now, is the body so shocking to you then? At once we must know if this scholarship is misplaced, wasted. It is intended for those who enter art seriously."

"Nobody could be more serious," Van brought out at last in a grating voice. "I would rather paint that body than

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