at my head if I can understand why he suddenly became
such a stick. He is generally a devilish jolly fellow, and not at all
bashful in the presence of ladies."

"He is--your friend?" she asked, in an almost inaudible voice.

"We have known each other for several weeks, and you know, until one
has eaten salt with a man--in the mean time, I imagine I think more of
him than he does of your humble servant."

"Your friend--is also an artist?"

"Most certainly, Fraeulein. He has devoted himself to sculpture under
the instruction of his old friend, the celebrated Jansen. How he
suddenly came to do it, no one knows. Don't you, too, think he looks
more like a cavalier? At all events there is something so romantic,
interesting, and Lord Byronish about him that I should not wonder at
all if he found tremendous favor with the women. I beg pardon, if I
have expressed myself too freely."

He grew red and plucked at his cuffs. She appeared to take no offense
at his forcible style, but merely asked again, in the most indifferent
tone:

"You think he has no talent?"

"How much talent he has, God only knows," replied his friend candidly.
"But one thing is certain, a gigantic courage and a devilish deal of
perseverance are required of one who ventures to take up with sculpture
nowadays. You wouldn't believe, Fraeulein, how difficult it is--in this
profession of all others--to find the means with which to mount to
the source, in this strait-laced civilization of ours, with its
conventional prejudices. The days when three goddesses did not
think it improper to get a certificate of their beauty from a royal
goatherd--I beg a thousand pardons, I always do wax warm when I think
of our wretched art-condition, and then I blurt out whatever comes into
my head. This much is certain: if my friend has allowed himself to be
induced merely by his love of beauty to become an artist, instead of
living on his estates, he will find he has reckoned without his host
even here in Munich. There are charming girls here, to be sure;--seen
on the street as they sweep by in their coquettish costumes, with their
little hats and chignons, one might almost be tempted to sell one's
soul to the devil out of pure delight--but when one comes to examine
them by a stronger light--"

The Fraeulein all at once seemed to discover that her presence was
imperatively required opposite, where the music pupils were sitting.
She rose hastily, bowed coldly to the astonish