lp laughing and
offering myself as a lady's maid for the dog, at which he showed great
delight. That broke the ice between us, and, since then, I take the
most inconceivable liberties with him, although my heart still
continues to thump if he chances to look at me in his quiet, steady
way, for a minute at a time."

Julie was silent. After some time she said, suddenly:

"It is true he has eyes such as I have never before seen in a man. One
can read in those eyes that he is not happy; all his genius cannot make
him glad. Don't you find it so, too? Wonderfully lonely eyes! Like
a man who has lived long, years in a desert, and has seen no living
soul--nothing but earth and sun. Do you know anything of his life?"

"No. He himself never speaks of it. Nor do any of the others know
what he may not have gone through before he came to Munich. That was
about five years ago. But now, if you will just sit still a moment
longer--so!--it's only for the reflection in the left eye, and the
retouching about the mouth."

Then the painting went on for another hour in silence.

CHAPTER III.

On the outskirts of the "English Garden" there lies, among other
pleasure-resorts of its class, the so-called "Garden of Paradise." In
the midst of a grove stands a large, stately building, at the laying of
whose corner-stone no one would have ventured to predict that it would
some day become a place of refuge for so mixed a company. Here, on
summer days, merry and thirsty folk are wont to gather round the tables
and benches, while a band plays from a covered platform. But the large
hall on the ground floor of the house is generally used for dancing,
while the lower side-wings are opened for spectators and for couples
that are resting from the waltz.

It was eleven o'clock at night, A thunderstorm, that had gathered
toward evening, had prevented the advertised garden-concert from taking
place. When the storm had scattered again after a few harmless
thunderclaps, the seats filled up very slowly; and the beer-drawer at
the open booth among the trees had plenty of time to doze between the
stray mugs that were handed in to him to be filled. For this reason the
garden had been closed earlier than usual; and when it struck eleven
the house lay as still and deserted as though there were not a living
being within.

And yet the long hall in the left wing, which was reached from the
garden by a few steps, was, if no