me you are no longer a sculptor, but a
plasterer. It is true that you may drink wine, but we who continue to
drink our water, and eat our dry bread, will remain artists."

Whatever Lazare might say about it, Jacques remained an artist. But to
keep Francine with him he undertook, when he had a chance, any paying
work. It is thus that he worked for a long time in the workshop of the
ornament maker Romagnesi. Clever in execution and ingenious in
invention, Jacques, without relinquishing high art, might have achieved
a high reputation in those figure groups that have become one of the
chief elements in this commerce. But Jacques was lazy, like all true
artists, and a lover after the fashion of poets. Youth in him had
awakened tardily but ardent, and, with a presentiment of his approaching
end, he had sought to exhaust it in Francine's arms. Thus it happened
that good chances of work knocked at his door without Jacques answering,
because he would have had to disturb himself, and he found it more
comfortable to dream by the light of his beloved's eyes.

When Francine was dead the sculptor went to see his old friends the
Water Drinkers again. But Lazare's spirit predominated in this club, in
which each of the members lived petrified in the egoism of art. Jacques
did not find what he came there in search of. They scarcely understood
his despair, which they strove to appease by argument, and seeing this
small degree of sympathy, Jacques preferred to isolate his grief rather
than see it laid bare by discussion. He broke off, therefore, completely
with the Water Drinkers and went away to live alone.

Five or six days after Francine's funeral, Jacques went to a monumental
mason of the Montparnasse cemetery and offered to conclude the following
bargain with him. The mason was to furnish Francine's grave with a
border, which Jacques reserved the right of designing, and in addition
to supply the sculptor with a block of white marble. In return for this
Jacques would place himself for three months at his disposition, either
as a journeyman stone-cutter or sculptor. The monumental mason then had
several important orders on hand. He visited Jacques' studio, and in
presence of several works begun there, had proof that the chance which
gave him the sculptor's services was a lucky one for him. A week later,
Francine's grave had a border, in the midst of which the wooden cross
had been replaced by a stone one with her name graven on it.