his face became impassive again, and
he looked at me with so scornful, insolent and calm a glance, that my
patience came to an end. I raised my hand, and gave him the best box on
the ear I ever gave in my life. At the noise, the door opened, and my
witnesses appeared solemn and indignant.

"Monsieur! this is infamous!"

"Yes, isn't it?" said the poor fellow, showing his red cheek.

You can imagine my confusion. Happily, I took the line of fainting, and
melting into torrents of tears, which relieved me greatly. At present,
Henri is in my room. He watches by me, nurses me, and is really
most kind. What can I do? What a checkmate! This will not prove very
satisfactory to Monsieur Petitbry.

Nina de B.

[Illustration: p129-140]

[Illustration: p130-141]

[Illustration: p133-144]

BOHEMIA AT HOME.

I hardly fancy it would be possible to find in the whole of Paris, a
more lively and peculiar house than that of the sculptor Simaise. Life
there is one continual round of festivities. At whatever hour you drop
in upon them, a sound of singing and laughter, or the jingle of a piano,
guitar, or tamtam greets you. You can never enter the studio without
finding a waltz going on, or a set of quadrilles, or a game of
battledore and shuttlecock, or else it is cumbered with all the litter
and preparations for a ball; shreds of tulle and ribbons lying scattered
among the sculptor's chisels; artificial flowers hanging over the busts,
and spangled skirts spreading over groups of moist clay.

[Illustration: p134-145]

The fact is that four big t daughters of sixteen to twenty-five years
of age, all very pretty indeed, take up a great deal of room; and when
these young ladies whirl round with their hair streaming down their
backs, with floating ribbons, long pins, and showy ornaments, it really
seems as if instead of four there were eight, sixteen, thirty-two Misses
Simaise, as dashing the one as the other, talking and laughing loudly,
with the hoydenish manner peculiar to artists' daughters, with the
studio jests, the familiarity of students, and knowing also better than
anyone how to dismiss a creditor or blow up a tradesman impertinent
enough to present his bill at an inopportune moment.

[Illustration: p135-146]

These young damsels are the real mistresses of the house. From early
dawn the father works, chisels, models unceasingly, for he has no
settled income. At first he was ambitious and strove to do good work;