A Girl of the Commune

der for work. Most of the easels were shifted round and

tamp of the foot. The words were scarcely out of

eurs," and she made

e minutes la

sight and all Paris in the streets-five minutes mean neithe

hastily, "run into your closet

nt girl attired for a fête. The dress suited her admirably. She was rather above the middle height, her figure lithe and supple with exceptionally graceful curves; her

st a doorway. He was struck with the easy grace of her pose. He walked up the street and then returned. As he did so he saw her spring out and encounter an older woman, and at once enter upon a fierce altercation with her. It was carried on with a

d hat, and said "Mademoiselle, I am an artist. My name is Goudé. I have an academy for painting, and I need a model. The work is not hard, it is but to sit or sta

ange in her pose that, slight as it was, r

se that I shall sit without clothes to be stared at by young m

would be sometimes a Roman lady, sometimes a Spanish peasant, a Moorish girl, a Breton, or

I might do it," she said; "it is an easy way

you would have no difficulty in obtaining similar work among

took it c

ng when he comes home from work. You are quite

er. There are models indeed who pose for figure, but these are a class apart, and I

sed away, and she entered with zest and eagerness upon her work. She delighted in being prettily and becomingly dressed. She listened intelligently to the master's descript

a bacchanal, a peasant girl, or a Gaulish amazon, she looked the part equally well; her face was singularly mobile, and although thi

of pay than those she earned with him. After the first two or three months she came but twice a week there, as that amply sufficed for the needs of the studio. On his

Minette. I know that my friends ar

t and have comfortable lodgings. We have everything we want, and I am laying by money fast. You have always treated me well, and I like you though y

of that of a model, contributing a full share to the lunch basket, but ready to pose as a peasant girl with a fagot on her head, a gleaner, or a country-woman with a baby on her lap, according to the scene and requirements. It was a matter of course that Minette should be present at every supper party or little fête among the students, always being placed in the seat of honor at the head of the table

aid one evening, when five or six of them were sitting s

e others protested, "most

r senses could hesitate between the Englishman and Dampierre. He has a better figure, is stronger and better looking. He is cleverer, and is as good-

with us as if she were one of ourselves. Now the American very seldom laughs and never jokes. He treats her

all burst i

Cuthbert asked, as he ente

he thinks the American is

ut if she got into one, it would be terrible. When she flashes out sometimes it is like a tongue of flame from a slumbering volcano. You would feel that there might be an eruption that would sweep everything before it. As you know, I gave up painting her after the first two months, but I sketch her in every pose; not always her whole figure, but her face, and keep the sketches for use some day. I was looking through them only yesterday and I said to myself, 'this woman is capable of anything.' She might be a Joan of Arc, or Lucraetzia Bor

hers l

art, passions which she has never felt. She can be simple and majestic, a laughing girl and a furious woman, a Christian martyr and a bacchanal, simply because she has mobile features, intelligenc

re takes life earnestly. He is indolent, but that is a matter of race and blood. He would not do a dishonorable action to save his life. I believe he is the heir to a large fortune, and he can, therefore, afford to work at his art in a dilettante sort of manner, and not like us poor beggars who look forward to earning our livelihood by it. He is passionate, I grant, but that is the ef

is life by such a hideous mistake as marrying Minette. Except on the principle that people are always attracted by their opposites, I can't account for his infatuation for this girl, or for her taking up with him. He has never alluded to the subject to me. I don't know that her name has ever been mentioned between us. I agree with you that I think he is in earnest about her, but my conclusion is certainly not formed on anything he has ever said himself. I have often thought that a go

o be an insolence,

your wife. I ask you whether you would like to see her laughing and chatting en bonne camarade with a lot of wild young students. Still l

ccurring, but if it did I can answer for it that I should not be able to keep my temper. I thi

ension that had not unfrequently existed between Da

Goudé said, as he went up on to the platfor

t one could stand still like a statue for hours when great things were being done, when the people were getting their libe

er and reduce your rents, or to permit Belleville and Montmartre to become masters of Paris? In a short time they will grumble at the Republic just as they grumble at the Emperor. It is folly and madness. The Emperor is n

u will see," said the

s I have eyes I shall do that.

I to be

sed to be castanets; now just imagine that music is playing and that you are keeping t

s she struck an attitude

as you are; you cannot improve

g on to it; one of her arms was held above her head, the other advanc

nto his pocket again, returned to his work, the subject of which was a party of Breton mobiles, with stacked arms und

elf, "if the girl is right, and if there is not

been upset, and every Jack thinks himself as good as his master. Altogether I think we are likely to have lively times here before long. I am not sure that the enemies within are not likely to prove as great a danger to Paris as the foe without. It was a happy idea of mine to come to Paris, and I am likely to get subjects enough to last for a life-time, though I don't know that battle scenes are altogether in my line. I

ly yesterday that I had better go on working at both figure and landscape. At present he could not give an opinion as to which I was likely to succeed in best, but tha

ing to one of their number reading a bulletin of the latest news, when his eye fell on a young lady walking with a brisk step towar

d from the skies

r embarrassment nor emotion on

ny times since I came here, five weeks ago, whether we should run against each other. No, I have not dropped from the clouds, and you ought to have known I should be here; I told y

state of things over here might have induced you to defer that part of the plan until a more appropriate season. Surely

tudying social problems than the present when conventionalities have gone to the winds and one sees people as they are; bu

u will allow me. What wi

e daughter, and we shall be able to chat comfortably, which we could not do if you came in the evening,

rnoons are fr

a steady business-like step. Cuthbert stood wa

refused. I wish to goodness I had not met her again. I had got fairly over it, and was even beginning to wonder how I ever could have wanted to marry anyone so different in every way from the sort of woman I fancied I should have fallen in love with. How foolish of her coming over to Paris at this time. Well, I daresay it has all saved a lot of trouble. I suppose at that time Brander would have been delighted at the prospect, but it would have been a very different thing after the failure of the bank. I don't think he would have made a pleasant father-in-law under the present circumstances. He is an old fox. I always thought so, and I think so more than