lli, with a landscape in the background? It is drawn like
this," and he made a gesture with his thumb, "and that is what I am
trying to obtain, the necessary curve on which all faces depend. There
is no better painter in Italy."

"And Titian and Raphael?" interrupted Madame Steno.

"And the Sienese and the Lorenzetti, of whom you once raved? You
wrote to me of them, with regard to my article on your exposition of
'eighty-six; do you remember?" inquired the writer.

"Raphael?" replied Maitland.... "Do you wish me to tell you what Raphael
really was? A sublime builder. And Titian? A sublime upholsterer. It
is true, I admired the Sienese very much," he added, turning toward
Dorsenne. "I spent three months in copying the Simone Martini of the
municipality, the Guido Riccio, who rides between two strongholds on
a gray heath, where there is not a sign of a tree or a house, but only
lances and towers. Do I remember Lorenzetti? Above all, the fresco at
San Francesco, in which Saint Francois presents his order to the Pope,
that was his best work.... Then, there is a cardinal, with his fingers
on his lips, thus!" another gesture. "Well, I remember it, you see,
because there is an anecdote. It is portrayed on a wall--oh, a grand
portrayal, but without the subject, flutt!".... and he made a
hissing sound with his lips, "while Pier della Francesca, Carnevale,
Melozzo,".... he paused to find a word which would express the very
complicated thought in his head, and he concluded: "That is painting."

"But the Assumption by Titian, and the Transfiguration by Raphael,"
resumed the Countess, who added in Italian, with an accent of
enthusiasm: "Ah, the bellezza!"

"Do not worry, Countess," said Dorsenne, laughing heartily, "those are
an artist's opinions. Ten years ago, I said that Victor Hugo was an
amateur and Alfred de Musset a bourgeois. But," he added, "as I am not
descended from the Doges nor the Pilgrim Fathers, I, a poor, degenerate
Gallo-Roman, fear the dampness on account of my rheumatism, and ask your
permission to reenter the house." Then, as he passed through the door
of the salon: "Raphael, a builder! Titian, an upholsterer! Lorenzetti,
a reproducer!" he repeated to himself. "And the descendant of the Doges,
who listened seriously to those speeches, her ideal should be a madonna
en chromo! Of the first order! As for Gorka, if he had not made me lose
my entire day yesterday, I should think I had been dreaming, so little
is