to flatter
her beyond measure that her youthful beauty should be the subject of
such conscientious study; and in this satisfaction to her vanity she
forgot fatigue. And indeed she was of unusually slender and graceful
form; and from the rough brown calico dress that was tightly fastened
about her waist there sprung, like a fair flower from a coarse husk, a
girlish figure of as perfect whiteness and delicacy as though the poor
child had no other occupation but to care for her complexion. Her face
was not exactly beautiful; a rather flat nose with broad nostrils
projected above the large, half-opened mouth. But in the ill-formed
jaws, that gave to the face something wild and almost like an animal,
shone perfect and beautiful teeth; and a merry, innocent, childlike
smile enlivened the full lips and the otherwise rather expressionless
eyes. The complexion of her face, too, was of a brilliant, transparent
white, spotted here and there by a few little freckles, of which there
were two or three also on her neck and breast. It was comical to see
how she herself shared in the study of her own beauty, as she found
such serious attention given to it by another; and, as she saw her
girlish self treated with such respect, she seemed to forget every
trace of anything like coquetry, such as might otherwise have entered
into the matter.

"You must be tired, Zenz," said the sculptor. "Don't you want to rest
awhile?"

She shook her auburn hair with a laugh. "It is so cool here," she
answered without stirring. "You don't feel your own weight at all in
the open air like this--and besides, there's the sweet smell of the
mignonette in the garden. I believe I could stand this way till night."

"So much the better. I was just going to ask you if you were not cold,
and didn't want a shawl over your shoulders. I don't need them now; I
am just doing the arms."

He went seriously and quietly on with his work. In his plain face,
framed in smooth blond hair streaked with gray, the only features that
struck one at first glance were the eyes, that shone with an unusual
force and fire. When he fixed them upon a certain point, it seemed as
though they took complete possession of what they saw, and made
themselves completely master of it. And yet there could be nothing more
quiet or less inquiring in expression than these same eyes.

"Who is that playing the flute up stairs?" asked the girl. "The first
time I was here, a week ago to-day, it was pe