No.206. Independence Day. "What's this then?" asked next-door Abigail, more to herself than to her friend's mannequin, McDowell--who was busy--strangely enough--adjusting the details of a big dot painting he was just finishing up. The mannequin said nothing. "Does he know you've started to paint on your own?" More silence. She could hear the rasp of McDowell's brush on the canvas. "I suppose you pick things up, being in the studio all the time." McDowell went on painting. "I'm going to find out what he thinks of his mannequin turning artist," she told him, in a tone that lay somewhere between information and challenge. McDowell put down his brush and walked stiffly out of the studio.