nevra allowed her companions to depart, and seemed to intend
to work later. But, unconsciously to herself, she betrayed her desire
to be left alone by impatient glances, ill-disguised, at the pupils who
were slow in leaving. Mademoiselle Thirion, a cruel enemy to the girl
who excelled her in everything, guessed by the instinct of jealousy that
her rival's industry hid some purpose. By dint of watching her she was
struck by the attentive air with which Ginevra seemed to be listening to
sounds that no one else had heard. The expression of impatience she now
detected in her companion's eyes was like a flash of light to her.

Amelie was the last of the pupils to leave the studio; from there she
went down to Madame Servin's apartment and talked with her for a moment;
then she pretended to have left her bag, ran softly back to the studio,
and found Ginevra once more mounted on her frail scaffolding, and so
absorbed in the contemplation of an unknown object that she did not hear
the slight noise of her companion's footsteps. It is true that, to use
an expression of Walter Scott, Amelie stepped as if on eggs. She hastily
withdrew outside the door and coughed. Ginevra quivered, turned her
head, saw her enemy, blushed, hastened to alter the shade to give
meaning to her position, and came down from her perch leisurely. She
soon after left the studio, bearing with her, in her memory, the image
of a man's head, as beauteous as that of the Endymion, a masterpiece of
Girodet's which she had lately copied.

"To banish so young a man! Who can he be? for he is not Marshal Ney--"

These two sentences are the simplest expression of the many ideas that
Ginevra turned over in her mind for two days. On the third day, in spite
of her haste to be first at the studio, she found Mademoiselle Thirion
already there, having come in a carriage.

Ginevra and her enemy observed each other for a long time, but they
made their faces impenetrable. Amelie had seen the handsome head of the
mysterious man, but, fortunately, and unfortunately also, the Imperial
eagles and uniform were so placed that she did not see them through the
crevice in the partition. She was lost in conjectures. Suddenly Servin
came in, much earlier than usual.

"Mademoiselle Ginevra," he said, after glancing round the studio, "why
have you placed yourself there? The light is bad. Come nearer to the
rest of the young ladies and pull down that curtain a little."

Then he sat down n