lt timid and nervous. It seemed like a deliverance when the
footsteps of the guard were heard, and Carmen drew him away through the
gate with her into the court-yard.

Before the little door leading into her father's room she again pressed
his hand, and then vanished as swiftly as a shadow.

Ulrich remained alone, pacing slowly up and down before the treasury,
for he knew that he had done something very wrong, and did not venture
to appear before the artist.

When he entered the dark garden, he had again summoned "fortune" to
his aid; but now it would have pleased him better, if it had been less
willing to come to his assistance.

Candles were burning in the studio, and Moor sat in his arm-chair,
holding--Ulrich would fain have bidden himself in the earth--the boy's
Cupid in his hands.

The young culprit wanted to slip past his teacher with a low "good
night," but the latter called him, and pointing to the picture,
smilingly asked: "Did you paint this?"

Ulrich nodded, blushing furiously.

The artist eyed him from top to toe, saying: "Well, well, it is really
very pretty. I suppose it is time now for us to begin to paint."

The lad did not know what had happened, for a few weeks before Moor had
harshly refused, when he asked the same thing now voluntarily offered.

Scarcely able to control his surprise and joy, he bent over the artist's
hand to kiss it, but the latter withdrew it, gazed steadily into his
eyes with paternal affection, and said: "We will try, my boy, but we
must not give up drawing, for that is the father of our art. Drawing
keeps us within the bounds assigned to what is true and beautiful. The
morning you must spend as before; after dinner you shall be rewarded by
using colors." This plan was followed, and the pupil's first love affair
bore still another fruit--it gave a different form to his relations
with Sanchez. The feeling that he had stood in his way and abused his
confidence sorely disturbed Ulrich, so he did everything in his power to
please his companion.

He did not see the fair Carmen again, and in a few weeks the appointment
was forgotten, for painting under Moor's instruction absorbed him as
nothing in his life had ever done before, and few things did after.

CHAPTER XVI.

Ulrich was now seventeen, and had been allowed to paint for four months.

Sanchez Coello rarely appeared in the studio, for he had gone to study
with the architect, Herrera; Isabella vied with Ulrich,