LAST PAGE

(from the collection "Burning Lamp" 1907)

In a small block west of Washington Square, the streets tangled up and broke into short strips called driveways. These passages form strange angles and curved lines. One street there even crosses itself twice. A certain artist managed to discover a very valuable property of this street. Suppose a assembler from a store with a bill for paints, paper and canvas meets himself there, walking home without receiving a single cent on the bill!

And so the artists stumbled upon the peculiar Greenwich Village quarter in search of north-facing windows, eighteenth-century roofs, Dutch lofts, and cheap rent. Then they moved a few pewter mugs and a brazier or two there from Sixth Avenue and established a "colony."

Sue and Jonesy's studio was at the top of a three-story brick building. Jonesy is a diminutive of Joanna. One came from Maine, the other from California. They met at the table d'hôte of a restaurant on Volma Street and found that their views on art, chicory salad and fashionable sleeves were quite the same. As a result, a common studio arose.

It was in May. In November, the surly stranger, whom the doctors call Pneumonia, walked invisibly through the colony, touching first one, then the other with his icy fingers. On the East Side, this murderer strode boldly, hitting dozens of victims, but here, in a labyrinth of narrow, moss-covered lanes, he trailed foot behind the naga.

Mr. Pneumonia was by no means a gallant old gentleman. A petite girl, anemic from California marshmallows, could hardly be considered a worthy opponent for a burly old dumbass with red fists and shortness of breath. However, he knocked her down, and Jonesy lay motionless on the painted iron bed, looking through the shallow Dutch window frame at the blank wall of the neighboring brick house.

One morning, the preoccupied doctor called Sue into the corridor with a single movement of his shaggy gray eyebrows.

She has one chance... well, let's say against ten, - he said, shaking off the mercury in the thermometer. - And then, if she herself wants to live. Our whole pharmacopoeia loses its meaning when people start acting in the interests of the undertaker. Your little young lady decided that she would not get better. What is she thinking?

She... she wanted to paint the Gulf of Naples.

Paints? Nonsense! Doesn't she have something in her soul that is really worth thinking about, for example, men?

Well, then she just weakened, the doctor decided. - I will do everything that I can do as a representative of science. But when my patient starts counting carriages in his funeral procession, I discount fifty percent off healing power medicines. If you can get her to ask just once what style of sleeves they will wear this winter, I guarantee you that she will have a one in five chance instead of a one in ten.

After the doctor left, Sue ran into the workshop and cried into a Japanese paper napkin until it was completely soaked. Then she bravely entered Jonesy's room with a drawing board, whistling ragtime.

Jonesy lay with her face turned to the window, barely visible under the covers. Sue stopped whistling, thinking Jonesy had fallen asleep.

She set up the blackboard and began an ink drawing of a magazine story. For young artists, the path to Art is paved with illustrations for magazine stories, with which young authors pave their way to Literature.

While sketching a figure of an Idaho cowboy in elegant breeches and a monocle in his eye for a story, Sue heard a low whisper, repeated several times. She hurried over to the bed. Jonesy's eyes were wide open. She looked out the window and counted - counted backwards.

Twelve, she said, and after a while: - eleven, - and then: - "ten" and "nine", and then: - "eight" and "seven" - almost simultaneously.

Sue looked out the window. What was there to count? All that was visible was the empty, dreary yard and the blank wall of a brick house twenty paces away. An old, old ivy with a knotted, rotten trunk at the roots half braided a brick wall. The cold breath of autumn tore the leaves from the vines, and the bare skeletons of the branches clung to the crumbling bricks.

What's in there, honey? Sue asked.

Six,” Jonesy said in a barely audible voice. - Now they fly around much faster. Three days ago there were almost a hundred of them. My head was spinning counting. And now it's easy. Here's another one flying. Now only five remain.

What's five, honey? Tell your Sudy.

Leaves On ivy. When the last leaf falls, I will die. I've known this for three days now. Didn't the doctor tell you?

This is the first time I hear such nonsense! Sue retorted with magnificent contempt. - What can the leaves on the old ivy have to do with the fact that you will get better? And you loved that ivy so much, you nasty little girl! Don't be stupid. Why, even today the doctor told me that you would soon recover ... let me, how did he say that? .. that you have ten chances against one. And it's no less than what each of us here in New York, when you ride the tram or walk past the new house. Try to eat some broth and let your Sudy finish the drawing so she can sell it to the editor and buy wine for her sick girl and pork cutlets for herself.

You don't need to buy any more wine," Jonesy replied, staring intently out the window. - Here comes another one. No, I don't want broth. So there are only four left. I want to see the last leaf fall. Then I will die too.

Jonesy, my dear,” said Sue, leaning over her, “will you promise me not to open your eyes and not look out the window until I finish working?” I have to turn in the illustration tomorrow. I need light, otherwise I would lower the curtain.

Can't you paint in the other room? Jonesy asked coldly.

I would like to sit with you,” Sue said. "Besides, I don't want you to look at those stupid leaves."

In a small block west of Washington Square, the streets tangled up and broke into short strips called driveways. These passages form strange angles and curved lines. One street there even crosses itself twice. A certain artist managed to discover a very valuable property of this street. Suppose a assembler from a store with a bill for paints, paper and canvas meets himself there, walking home without receiving a single cent on the bill!

And so, in search of north-facing windows, eighteenth-century roofs, Dutch mansards, and cheap rent, artists came across a peculiar Greenwich Village quarter. Then they moved a few pewter mugs and a brazier or two there from Sixth Avenue and established a "colony."

Sue and Jonesy's studio was at the top of a three-story brick building. Jonesy is a diminutive of Joanna. One came from Maine, the other from California. They met at the table d'hôte of a restaurant on Eighth Street and found that their views on art, chicory salad and fashionable sleeves were quite the same. As a result, a common studio arose.

It was in May. In November, the surly stranger, whom the doctors call Pneumonia, walked invisibly through the colony, touching first one, then the other with his icy fingers.

In a small block west of Washington Square, the streets tangled up and broke into short strips called driveways. These passages form strange angles and curved lines. One street there even crosses itself twice. A certain artist managed to discover a very valuable property of this street. Suppose a assembler from a store with a bill for paints, paper and canvas meets himself there, walking home without receiving a single cent on the bill!

And so the artists stumbled upon the peculiar Greenwich Village quarter in search of north-facing windows, eighteenth-century roofs, Dutch lofts, and cheap rent. Then they moved a few pewter mugs and a brazier or two there from Sixth Avenue and established a "colony."

Sue and Jonesy's studio was at the top of a three-story brick building. Jonesy is a diminutive of Joanna. One came from Maine, the other from California. They met at the table d'hôte of a restaurant on Volma Street and found that their views on art, chicory salad and fashionable sleeves were quite the same. As a result, a common studio arose.

It was in May. In November, the surly stranger, whom the doctors call Pneumonia, walked invisibly through the colony, touching first one, then the other with his icy fingers. On the East Side, this murderer strode boldly, hitting dozens of victims, but here, in a labyrinth of narrow, moss-covered lanes, he trudged foot by foot.

Mr. Pneumonia was by no means a gallant old gentleman. A petite girl, anemic from California marshmallows, could hardly be considered a worthy opponent for a burly old dumbass with red fists and shortness of breath. However, he knocked her down, and Jonesy lay motionless on the painted iron bed, looking through the shallow Dutch window frame at the blank wall of the neighboring brick house.

One morning, the preoccupied doctor called Sue into the corridor with a single movement of his shaggy gray eyebrows.

She has one chance… well, let's say against ten,” he said, shaking off the mercury in the thermometer. - And then, if she herself wants to live. Our whole pharmacopoeia loses its meaning when people start acting in the interests of the undertaker. Your little young lady decided that she would not get better. What is she thinking?

She ... she wanted to paint the Gulf of Naples.

Paints? Nonsense! Doesn't she have something in her soul that is really worth thinking about, for example, men?

Well, then she just weakened, the doctor decided. - I will do everything that I can do as a representative of science. But when my patient begins to count the carriages in his funeral procession, I discount fifty percent of the healing power of the drugs. If you can get her to ask just once what style of sleeves they will wear this winter, I guarantee you that she will have a one in five chance instead of a one in ten.

After the doctor left, Sue ran into the workshop and cried into a Japanese paper napkin until it was completely soaked. Then she bravely entered Jonesy's room with a drawing board, whistling ragtime.

Jonesy lay with her face turned to the window, barely visible under the covers. Sue stopped whistling, thinking Jonesy had fallen asleep.

She set up the blackboard and began an ink drawing of a magazine story. For young artists, the path to Art is paved with illustrations for magazine stories, with which young authors pave their way to Literature.

While sketching a figure of an Idaho cowboy in elegant breeches and a monocle in his eye for a story, Sue heard a low whisper, repeated several times. She hurried over to the bed. Jonesy's eyes were wide open. She looked out the window and counted - counted backwards.

Twelve, - she said, and after a while: - eleven, - and then: - "ten" and "nine", and then: - "eight" and "seven" - almost simultaneously.

Sue looked out the window. What was there to count? All that was visible was the empty, dreary yard and the blank wall of a brick house twenty paces away. An old, old ivy with a knotted, rotten trunk at the roots half braided a brick wall. The cold breath of autumn tore the leaves from the vines, and the bare skeletons of the branches clung to the crumbling bricks.

What's in there, honey? Sue asked.

Six,” Jonesy said in a barely audible voice. - Now they fly around much faster. Three days ago there were almost a hundred of them. My head was spinning counting. And now it's easy. Here's another one flying. Now only five remain.

What's five, honey? Tell your Sudy.

Leaves. On plush. When the last leaf falls, I will die. I've known this for three days now. Didn't the doctor tell you?

This is the first time I hear such nonsense! Sue retorted with magnificent contempt. - What can the leaves on the old ivy have to do with the fact that you will get better? And you loved that ivy so much, you nasty little girl! Don't be stupid. Why, even today the doctor told me that you would soon recover ... let me, how did he say that? .. that you have ten chances against one. And it's no less than what each of us here in New York, when you ride the tram or walk past the new house. Try to eat some broth and let your Sudy finish the drawing so she can sell it to the editor and buy wine for her sick girl and pork cutlets for herself.

You don't need to buy any more wine," Jonesy replied, staring intently out the window. - Here comes another one. No, I don't want broth. So there are only four left. I want to see the last leaf fall. Then I will die too.

Jonesy, my dear,” said Sue, leaning over her, “will you promise me not to open your eyes and not look out the window until I finish working?” I have to turn in the illustration tomorrow. I need light, otherwise I would lower the curtain.

Can't you paint in the other room? Jonesy asked coldly.

I would like to sit with you,” Sue said. "Besides, I don't want you to look at those stupid leaves."

Tell me when you're done,” Jonesy said, closing her eyes, pale and motionless, like a fallen statue, “because I want to see the last leaf fall. I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of thinking. I want to be free from everything that holds me - to fly, fly lower and lower, like one of these poor, tired leaves.

Try to sleep,” Sue said. - I need to call Berman, I want to write from him a gold digger-hermit. I'm at the most for a minute. Look, don't move until I come.

Sue found Berman smelling strongly of juniper berries in his semi-dark downstairs closet. In one corner, an untouched canvas stood on an easel for twenty-five years, ready to receive the first strokes of a masterpiece. Sue told the old man about Jonesy's fantasy and her fears that she, light and fragile as a leaf, would not fly away from them when her fragile connection with the world weakened. Old Berman, whose red eyes were very visibly teary, shouted, mocking such idiotic fantasies.

What! he shouted. - Is it possible such stupidity - to die because the leaves fall from the damned ivy! The first time I've heard. No, I don't want to pose for your idiot hermit. How do you let her fill her head with such nonsense? Ah, poor little Miss Jonesy!

She is very ill and weak,” said Sue, “and from her fever all sorts of morbid fantasies come into her head. Very well, Mr. Berman - if you don't want to pose for me, then don't. I still think you're a nasty old man... a nasty old talker.

Here's a real woman! Berman shouted. - Who said I don't want to pose? Let's go. I'm coming with you. For half an hour I say that I want to pose. My God! This is no place for a good girl like Miss Jonesy to get sick. Someday I'll write a masterpiece and we'll all get out of here. Yes Yes!

Jonesy was dozing when they went upstairs. Sue pulled the curtain down to the window sill and motioned Berman into the other room. There they went to the window and looked fearfully at the old ivy. Then they looked at each other without saying a word. It was cold, persistent rain mixed with snow. Berman, in an old blue shirt, sat down in the pose of a gold-digger-hermit on an overturned teapot instead of a rock.

The next morning, Sue awoke from a short sleep to find Jonesy staring at the green curtain, her eyes wide and dull.

Pick it up, I want to see it,” Jonesy commanded in a whisper.

Sue obeyed wearily.

And what? After heavy rain and sharp gusts of wind that did not let up all night, one leaf of ivy was still visible on the brick wall - the last one! Still dark green at the stalk, but jagged along the jagged edges with the yellow of smoldering and decay, it held up bravely on a branch twenty feet above the ground.

This is the last one,” Jonesy said. - I thought that he would certainly fall at night. I heard the wind. It will fall today, then I will die too.

May God be with you! said Sue, leaning her weary head to the pillow. "Think of me if you don't want to think of yourself!" What will happen to me?

But Jonesy didn't answer. The soul, preparing to set off on a mysterious, distant journey, becomes alien to everything in the world. The morbid fantasy took possession of Jonesy more and more, as all the threads that connected her with life and people were torn one after another.

The day passed, and even at twilight they could see a lone ivy leaf holding its stalk against the brick wall. And then, with the onset of darkness, the north wind picked up again, and the rain continually beat against the windows, rolling down from the low Dutch roof.

As soon as dawn broke, the merciless Jonesy ordered the curtain to be raised again.

The ivy leaf was still there.

Jonesy lay for a long time looking at him. Then she called Sue, who warmed up for her chicken bouillon on a gas burner.

I've been a bad girl, Sudy,” Jonesy said. - This last leaf must have been left on the branch in order to show me how ugly I was. Wishing for death is a sin. Now you can give me some broth, and then some milk with port ... But no: first bring me a mirror, and then cover me with pillows, and I will sit and watch you cook.

An hour later she said:

Sudy, I hope to paint the Bay of Naples someday.

The doctor came in the afternoon, and Sue, on some pretense, followed him into the hallway.

The chances are equal, - said the doctor, shaking Sue's thin, trembling hand. - At good care you will win. And now I have to visit another patient downstairs. His last name is Berman. He seems to be an artist. Also pneumonia. He is already an old man and very weak, and the form of the disease is severe. There is no hope, but today he will be sent to the hospital, where he will be calmer.

The next day the doctor said to Sue:

She is out of danger. You won. Now food and care - and nothing else is needed.

That same evening, Sue went to the bed where Jonesy lay, happily knitting a bright blue, completely useless scarf, and hugged her with one arm - along with a pillow.

I have something to tell you, white mouse," she began. - Mr. Berman died today in the hospital from pneumonia. He was only ill for two days. On the morning of the first day, the porter found the poor old man on the floor in his room. He was unconscious. His shoes and all his clothes were soaked through and cold as ice. No one could understand where he went out on such a terrible night. Then they found a lantern that was still burning, a ladder moved from its place, several discarded brushes and a palette of yellow and green paints. Look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf. Didn't it surprise you that he didn't tremble or stir in the wind? Yes, honey, this is Berman's masterpiece - he wrote it the night the last sheet fell off.

In a small block west of Washington Square, the streets tangled up and broke into short strips called driveways. These passages form strange angles and curved lines. One street there even crosses itself twice. A certain artist managed to discover a very valuable property of this street. Suppose a assembler from a store with a bill for paints, paper and canvas meets himself there, walking home without receiving a single cent on the bill!

And so the artists stumbled upon the peculiar Greenwich Village quarter in search of north-facing windows, eighteenth-century roofs, Dutch lofts, and cheap rent. Then they moved a few pewter mugs and a brazier or two there from Sixth Avenue and established a "colony."

Sue and Jonesy's studio was at the top of a three-story brick building. Jonesy is a diminutive of Joanna. One came from Maine, the other from California. They met at the table d'hôte of a restaurant on Volma Street and found that their views on art, chicory salad and fashionable sleeves were quite the same. As a result, a common studio arose.

It was in May. In November, the surly stranger, whom the doctors call Pneumonia, walked invisibly through the colony, touching first one, then the other with his icy fingers. On the East Side, this murderer strode boldly, hitting dozens of victims, but here, in a labyrinth of narrow, moss-covered lanes, he trailed foot behind the naga.

Mr. Pneumonia was by no means a gallant old gentleman. A petite girl, anemic from California marshmallows, could hardly be considered a worthy opponent for a burly old dumbass with red fists and shortness of breath. However, he knocked her down, and Jonesy lay motionless on the painted iron bed, looking through the shallow Dutch window frame at the blank wall of the neighboring brick house.

One morning, the preoccupied doctor called Sue into the corridor with a single movement of his shaggy gray eyebrows.

“She has one chance… well, let's say against ten,” he said, shaking off the mercury in the thermometer. And then, if she herself wants to live. Our whole pharmacopoeia loses its meaning when people start acting in the interests of the undertaker. Your little young lady decided that she would not get better. What is she thinking?

“She… she wanted to paint the Gulf of Naples.

– Paints? Nonsense! Doesn't she have something in her soul that is really worth thinking about, for example, men?

"Well, then she's just weakened," the doctor decided. “I will do my best as a representative of science. But when my patient starts counting the carriages in his funeral procession, I discount fifty percent of the healing power of the drugs. If you can get her to ask just once what style of sleeves they will wear this winter, I guarantee you that she will have a one in five chance instead of a one in ten.

After the doctor left, Sue ran into the workshop and cried into a Japanese paper napkin until it was completely soaked. Then she bravely entered Jonesy's room with a drawing board, whistling ragtime.

Jonesy lay with her face turned to the window, barely visible under the covers. Sue stopped whistling, thinking Jonesy had fallen asleep.

She set up the blackboard and began an ink drawing of a magazine story. For young artists, the path to Art is paved with illustrations for magazine stories, with which young authors pave their way to Literature.

While sketching a figure of an Idaho cowboy in elegant breeches and a monocle in his eye for a story, Sue heard a low whisper, repeated several times. She hurried over to the bed. Jonesy's eyes were wide open. She looked out the window and counted—counted backwards.

“Twelve,” she said, and after a while, “eleven,” and then: “ten” and “nine,” and then: “eight” and “seven,” almost simultaneously.

Sue looked out the window. What was there to count? All that was visible was the empty, dreary yard and the blank wall of a brick house twenty paces away. An old, old ivy with a knotted, rotten trunk at the roots half braided a brick wall. The cold breath of autumn tore the leaves from the vines, and the bare skeletons of the branches clung to the crumbling bricks.

"What's in there, honey?" Sue asked.

"Six," Jonesy said in a barely audible voice. “Now they fly much faster. Three days ago there were almost a hundred of them. My head was spinning counting. And now it's easy. Here's another one flying. Now only five remain.

"What's five, honey?" Tell your Sudy.

- Leaves. On plush. When the last leaf falls, I will die. I've known this for three days now. Didn't the doctor tell you?

This is the first time I've heard such nonsense! Sue retorted with magnificent contempt. “What do the leaves on the old ivy have to do with your getting better?” And you loved that ivy so much, you nasty little girl! Don't be stupid. Why, even today the doctor told me that you would soon recover ... let me, how did he say that? .. that you have ten chances against one. And it's no less than what each of us here in New York, when you ride the tram or walk past the new house. Try to eat some broth and let your Sudy finish the drawing so she can sell it to the editor and buy wine for her sick girl and pork cutlets for herself.

“You don’t have to buy any more wine,” Jonesy answered, staring out the window. - Here comes another one. No, I don't want broth. So there are only four left. I want to see the last leaf fall. Then I will die too.

"Last page"

In a small block west of Washington Square, the streets tangled up and broke into short strips called driveways. These passages form strange angles and curved lines. One street there even crosses itself twice. A certain artist managed to discover a very valuable property of this street.

Suppose a assembler from a store with a bill for paints, paper and canvas meets himself there, walking home without receiving a single cent on the bill!

And so the artists stumbled upon the peculiar Greenwich Village quarter in search of north-facing windows, eighteenth-century roofs, Dutch lofts, and cheap rent. Then they moved a few pewter mugs and a brazier or two there from Sixth Avenue and established a "colony."

Sue and Jonesy's studio was at the top of a three-story brick building.

Jonesy is a diminutive of Joanna. One came from Maine, the other from California. They met at the table d'hôte of a restaurant on Volma Street and found that their views on art, chicory salad and fashionable sleeves were quite the same. As a result, a common studio arose.

It was in May. In November, the surly stranger, whom the doctors call Pneumonia, walked invisibly through the colony, touching first one, then the other with his icy fingers. On the East Side, this murderer strode boldly, hitting dozens of victims, but here, in a labyrinth of narrow, moss-covered lanes, he trailed foot behind the naga.

Mr. Pneumonia was by no means a gallant old gentleman. A petite girl, anemic from California marshmallows, could hardly be considered a worthy opponent for a burly old dumbass with red fists and shortness of breath. However, he knocked her down, and Jonesy lay motionless on the painted iron bed, looking through the shallow Dutch window frame at the blank wall of the neighboring brick house.

One morning, the preoccupied doctor called Sue into the corridor with a single movement of his shaggy gray eyebrows.

She has one chance... well, let's say against ten, - he said, shaking off the mercury in the thermometer. - And then, if she herself wants to live. Our whole pharmacopoeia loses its meaning when people start acting in the interests of the undertaker. Your little young lady decided that she would not get better. What is she thinking?

She... she wanted to paint the Gulf of Naples.

Paints? Nonsense! Doesn't she have something in her soul that is really worth thinking about, for example, men?

Well, then she just weakened, the doctor decided. - I will do everything that I can do as a representative of science. But when my patient starts counting the carriages in his funeral procession, I discount fifty percent of the healing power of the drugs. If you can get her to ask just once what style of sleeves they will wear this winter, I guarantee you that she will have a one in five chance instead of a one in ten.

After the doctor left, Sue ran into the workshop and cried into a Japanese paper napkin until it was completely soaked.

Then she bravely entered Jonesy's room with a drawing board, whistling ragtime.

Jonesy lay with her face turned to the window, barely visible under the covers.

Sue stopped whistling, thinking Jonesy had fallen asleep.

She set up the blackboard and began an ink drawing of a magazine story. For young artists, the path to Art is paved with illustrations for magazine stories, with which young authors pave their way to Literature.

While sketching a figure of an Idaho cowboy in elegant breeches and a monocle in his eye for a story, Sue heard a low whisper, repeated several times.

She hurried over to the bed. Jonesy's eyes were wide open. She looked out the window and counted - counted backwards.

Twelve,” she said, and after a while: “eleven,” and then: “ten” and “nine,” and then:—

"eight" and "seven" - almost simultaneously.

Sue looked out the window. What was there to count? All that was visible was the empty, dreary yard and the blank wall of a brick house twenty paces away. An old, old ivy with a knotted, rotten trunk at the roots half braided a brick wall. The cold breath of autumn tore the leaves from the vines, and the bare skeletons of the branches clung to the crumbling bricks.

What's in there, honey? Sue asked.

Six,” Jonesy said in a barely audible voice. - Now they fly around much faster. Three days ago there were almost a hundred of them. My head was spinning counting. And now it's easy. Here's another one flying. Now only five remain.

What's five, honey? Tell your Sudy.

Leaves On ivy. When the last leaf falls, I will die. I've known this for three days now. Didn't the doctor tell you?

This is the first time I hear such nonsense! Sue retorted with magnificent contempt. - What can the leaves on the old ivy have to do with the fact that you will get better? And you loved that ivy so much, you nasty little girl! Don't be stupid. Why, even today the doctor told me that you would soon recover ... let me, how did he say that? .. that you have ten chances against one. And it's no less than what each of us here in New York, when you ride the tram or walk past the new house. Try to eat some broth and let your Sudy finish the drawing so she can sell it to the editor and buy wine for her sick girl and pork cutlets for herself.

You don't need to buy any more wine," Jonesy replied, staring intently out the window. - Here comes another one. No, I don't want broth. So there are only four left. I want to see the last leaf fall. Then I will die too.

Jonesy, my dear,” said Sue, leaning over her, “will you promise me not to open your eyes and not look out the window until I finish working?” I have to turn in the illustration tomorrow. I need light, otherwise I would lower the curtain.

Can't you paint in the other room? Jonesy asked coldly.

I would like to sit with you,” Sue said. "Besides, I don't want you to look at those stupid leaves."

Tell me when you're done,” Jonesy said, closing her eyes, pale and motionless, like a fallen statue, “because I want to see the last leaf fall. I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of thinking. I want to be free from everything that holds me - to fly, fly lower and lower, like one of these poor, tired leaves.

Try to sleep,” Sue said. - I need to call Berman, I want to write from him a gold digger-hermit. I'm at the most for a minute. Look, don't move until I come.

Old Berman was an artist who lived downstairs under their studio.

He was over sixty, and a beard, all in curls, like Michelangelo's Moses, descended from the head of a satyr onto the body of a dwarf. In art, Berman was a failure. He was going to write a masterpiece, but did not even begin it. For several years he did not write anything, except for signs, advertisements and similar daubs for the sake of a piece of bread. He made a living by posing for young artists who couldn't afford professional sitters. He drank heavily, but still talked about his future masterpiece. Otherwise, he was a feisty old man who scoffed at any sentimentality and looked at himself as if he were a watchdog specially assigned to protect two young artists.

Sue found Berman smelling strongly of juniper berries in his semi-dark downstairs closet. In one corner, an untouched canvas stood on an easel for twenty-five years, ready to receive the first strokes of a masterpiece. Sue told the old man about Jonesy's fantasy and her fears that she, light and fragile as a leaf, would not fly away from them when her fragile connection with the world weakened. Old Berman, whose red cheeks were very visibly weeping, shouted, mocking such idiotic fantasies.

What! he shouted. - Is it possible such stupidity - to die because the leaves fall from the damned ivy! The first time I've heard. No, I don't want to pose for your idiot hermit. How do you let her fill her head with such nonsense? Ah, poor little Miss Jonesy!

She is very ill and weak,” said Sue, “and from her fever all sorts of morbid fantasies come into her head. Very well, Mr. Berman - if you don't want to pose for me, then don't. I still think you're a nasty old man... a nasty old talker.

Here's a real woman! Berman shouted. - Who said I don't want to pose? Let's go. I'm coming with you. For half an hour I say that I want to pose. My God! This is no place for a good girl like Miss Jonesy to get sick.

Someday I'll write a masterpiece and we'll all get out of here. Yes Yes!

Jonesy was dozing when they went upstairs. Sue pulled the curtain down to the window sill and motioned Berman into the other room. There they went to the window and looked fearfully at the old ivy. Then they looked at each other without saying a word. It was cold, persistent rain mixed with snow. Berman, in an old blue shirt, sat down in the pose of a gold-digger-hermit on an overturned teapot instead of a rock.

The next morning, Sue awoke from a short sleep to find Jonesy staring at the green curtain, her eyes wide and dull.

Pick it up, I want to see it,” Jonesy commanded in a whisper.

Sue obeyed wearily.

And what? After heavy rain and sharp gusts of wind that did not let up all night, one leaf of ivy was still visible on the brick wall - the last one! Still dark green at the stalk, but jagged along the jagged edges with the yellow of smoldering and decay, it held up bravely on a branch twenty feet above the ground.

This is the last one,” Jonesy said. - I thought that he would certainly fall at night. I heard the wind. It will fall today, then I will die too.

May God be with you! said Sue, leaning her weary head to the pillow. -

Think of me if you don't want to think of yourself! What will happen to me?

But Jonesy didn't answer. The soul, preparing to set off on a mysterious, distant journey, becomes alien to everything in the world. The morbid fantasy took possession of Jonesy more and more, as all the threads that connected her with life and people were torn one after another.

The day passed, and even at twilight they could see a lone ivy leaf holding its stalk against the brick wall. And then, with the onset of darkness, the north wind picked up again, and the rain continually beat against the windows, rolling down from the low Dutch roof.

As soon as dawn broke, the merciless Jonesy ordered the curtain to be raised again.

The ivy leaf was still there.

Jonesy lay for a long time looking at him. Then she called Sue, who was heating chicken broth for her on a gas burner.

I've been a bad girl, Sudy,” Jonesy said. - This last leaf must have been left on the branch in order to show me how ugly I was. Wishing for death is a sin. Now you can give me some broth, and then some milk with port... But no: first bring me a mirror, and then put pillows over me, and I will sit and watch you cook.

An hour later she said:

Sudy, I hope to paint the Bay of Naples someday.

The doctor came in the afternoon, and Sue, on some pretense, followed him into the hallway.

The chances are equal, - said the doctor, shaking Sue's thin, trembling hand.

With good care, you will win. And now I have to visit another patient downstairs. His last name is Berman. He seems to be an artist. Also pneumonia. He is already an old man and very weak, and the form of the disease is severe.

There is no hope, but today he will be sent to the hospital, where he will be calmer.

The next day the doctor said to Sue:

She is out of danger. You won. Now food and care - and nothing else is needed.

That same evening, Sue went to the bed where Jonesy lay, happily knitting a bright blue, completely useless scarf, and hugged her with one arm - along with a pillow.

I have something to tell you, white mouse," she began. - Mr. Berman died today in the hospital from pneumonia. He was only ill for two days. On the morning of the first day, the porter found the poor old man on the floor in his room. He was unconscious. His shoes and all his clothes were soaked through and cold as ice. No one could understand where he went out on such a terrible night. Then they found a lantern that was still burning, a ladder moved from its place, several discarded brushes and a palette of yellow and green paints.

Look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf. Didn't it surprise you that he didn't tremble or stir in the wind? Yes, honey, this is Berman's masterpiece - he wrote it the night the last sheet fell off.

See also O. Henry (O. Henry) - Prose (stories, poems, novels ...):

The last troubadour
Sam Galloway saddled his horse with a relentless air. After a three month...

The transformation of Martin Barney
Concerning the soothing herb so valued by Sir Walter, consider...