studies he had made
lately, especially some for the head of the daughter of Jairus, he
considered absolute failures.

"Those blessed models," he said, "drive me wild. The rubbish that girl
talks whilst I am trying to raise her from the dead, would make a saint
swear."

It took a good deal of persuasion to get him away from the studio and
the models, but luckily an opportunity for a rest came, when his father
had to make an official inspection of some works in the neighbourhood of
Lyons and wished Claude to accompany him.

The short holiday that he thus had to submit to would have proved rather
dull and uneventful, had it not been for an incident that made a great
impression on him. In his rambles through the city of Lyons he had come
across a fine old building, the gates of which stood hospitably open;
the door too, for, having crossed the picturesque courtyard, at one time
probably a cloister, there was nothing to prevent his entering the main
building, and he soon found himself wandering along the corridors of the
City Hospital. He seems at first to have chatted cheerfully with some of
the patients, amusing and encouraging them in his pleasant way; but
presently, as he passed from ward to ward, and witnessed the acute
sufferings of some of the sick, and the dull hopelessness of the
incurables, he gradually felt his strength failing him. The long rows of
beds began to revolve around him; he mechanically clutched hold of
something and--fainted.

So much of the incident he mentioned in a letter to me; as also that he
was going daily to the hospital to make some drawings, but the more
interesting features of his adventure I did not gather till a week or
two later, when we met in Orleans, which place was to be the
starting-point for a pedestrian tour we had planned. There he gave me
full particulars.

"I felt it coming," he said; "the rail of the bedstead nearest at hand
seemed to be going round like a wheel, and I had to wait till it was
within reach to catch it. What happened then I don't know. I suppose the
good sisters helped me to a seat and watered me till I came round. All I
can say is, that there must have been a long interval between getting
out of the faint and back to life. It was a curious experience, and one
I shall not easily forget. The first thing I became conscious of, was
that my eyes were riveted on the lifeless body of a girl laid out on a
bed, and covered with a spotless shroud; I thought it was