med a tune, and the
attention with which they saw her listen to sounds which only she could
hear through the partition.

By the end of a week, Laure was the only one of Servin's fifteen pupils
who had resisted the temptation of looking at Luigi through the crevice
of the partition; and she, through an instinct of weakness, still
defended her beautiful friend. Mademoiselle Roguin endeavored to make
her wait on the staircase after the class dispersed, that she might
prove to her the intimacy of Ginevra and the young man by entering the
studio and surprising them together. But Laure refused to condescend to
an act of espial which no curiosity could justify, and she consequently
became the object of much reprobation.

Before long Mademoiselle Thirion made known that she thought it improper
to attend the classes of a painter whose opinions were tainted with
patriotism and Bonapartism (in those days the terms were synonymous),
and she ceased her attendance at the studio. But, although she herself
forgot Ginevra, the harm she had planted bore fruit. Little by little,
the other young girls revealed to their mothers the strange events which
were happening at the studio. One day Matilde Roguin did not come; the
next day another girl was missing, and so on, till the last three or
four who were left came no more. Ginevra and Laure, her little friend,
were the sole occupants of the deserted studio for three or four days.

Ginevra did not observe this falling off, nor ask the cause of her
companions' absence. As soon as she had invented means of communication
with Luigi she lived in the studio in a delightful solitude, alone
amid her own world, thinking only of the officer and the dangers that
threatened him. Though a sincere admirer of noble characters that never
betray their political faiths, she nevertheless urged Luigi to submit
himself to the royal authority, that he might be released from his
present life and remain in France. But to this he would not consent.
If passions are born and nourished, as they say, under the influence of
romantic causes, never did so many circumstances of that kind concur in
uniting two young souls by one and the same sentiment. The friendship of
Ginevra for Luigi and that of Luigi for Ginevra made more progress in a
month than a friendship in society would make in ten years. Adversity
is the touchstone of character. Ginevra was able, therefore, to study
Luigi, to know him; and before long they mutu