l all stay
together to-day. Herrera is coming from the Escurial. You will endure the
dress for the sake of the wearer, won't you, ladies? Besides, who is to
choose the velvet and cut for this young dandy? He always wore something
unusual. I can still see the master's smile, provoked by some of the
lad's new contrivances in puffs and slashes. It is pleasant to have you
here, my boy! I ought to slay a calf, as the father did for the prodigal
son; but we live in miniature. Instead of neat-cattle, only a capon! . . ."

"But you're not drinking, you're not drinking! Isabella, fill his glass.
Look! only see these scars on his hands and neck. It will need a great
deal of lace to conceal them. No, no, they are marks of honor, you must
show them. Come here, I will kiss this great scar, on your neck, my
brave, faithful fellow, and some day a fair one will follow my example.
If Antonio were only here! There's a kiss for him, and another, there,
there. Art bestows it, Art, for whom you have saved Moor!"

A master's kiss in the name of Art! It was sweeter than the beautiful
Carmen's lips!

Coello was himself an artist, a great painter! Where could his peers be
found--or those of Moor, and the architect Herrera, who entered soon
after. Only those, who consecrated their lives to Art, the word of words,
could be so noble, cheerful, kind.

How happy he was when he went to bed! how gratefully he told his beloved
dead, in spirit, what had fallen to his lot, and how joyously he could
pray!

The next morning he went with a full purse into the city, returning
elegantly dressed, and with neatly-arranged locks. The peinador had given
his budding moustache a bold twist upward.

He still looked thin and somewhat awkward, but the tall youth promised to
become a stately man.

CHAPTER XX.

Towards noon Coello called Ulrich into Moor's former studio; the youth
could not fail to observe its altered appearance.

Long cartoons, containing sketches of figures, large paintings, just
commenced or half-finished, leaned against the easels; mannikins, movable
wooden horse's heads, and plaster-models stood on the floor, the tables,
and in the windows. Stuffs, garments, tapestries, weapons hung over the
backs of the chairs, or lay on chests, tables and the stone-floor.
Withered laurel-wreaths, tied with long ribbons, fluttered over the
mantel-piece; one had fallen, dropped over the bald head of Julius
Caesar, and rested on the breast.

The a