A third, a fourth, and a fifth time Vandover made the attempt.

It was useless.

He knew that it was not because his hand lacked cunning on account of long disuse; such a thing, in spite of popular belief, never happened to artists--a good artist might abandon his work for five years, ten years--and take it up again precisely where he had laid it down with no loss of technical skill.

No, this thing seemed more subtle, so subtle that at first he could hardly grasp it.

But suddenly a great fear came upon him, a momentary return of that wild hysterical terror from which he believed he had forever escaped.
"Is it gone ?" he cried out.