of flaming scarlet: tulle and velvet and poppies
cunningly mingled, and well foiled by the solemn black of her escort's
formal garb. While the vision floated about the room examining the
various sketches and studies scattered over the walls, Joseph managed to
keep his head sufficiently to go through the necessary preliminaries
with his Excellency, who, a trifle nervous about his situation, and
convinced that no danger to his possession could possibly accrue through
this shy and boyish young artist, so plainly in the throes of poverty,
was much relieved when the matter of size and price had been settled and
he could take his departure, leaving Irina to her first sitting.

As the door closed behind the well-padded back of her Prince, Irina's
indifference dropped from her like a cloak, and she returned to the
proximity of the intoxicated boy, captured his blue gaze with the
slumbrous fire of her Oriental eyes, and then laughed at him--and
laughed--and musically laughed, till the fire from his brain leaped to
his fingertips. Suddenly, commanding her, he flung his canvas on the
easel, seized his charcoal, and, completely misconstruing his own
sensations, began to draw her as she stood.

The work of that hour was inspirational. In it, he accomplished more
than was done in the succeeding month. In the very beginning he managed,
unconsciously, to make Irina respect his talent. She saw all the best of
him, the finest of his power: which never before had flamed so high, and
was never to flame so high again. But Irina, filled from top to toe with
the _temperament_ that comprehends every vagary and something of genius,
watched the illumination of his face and eyes till she was beset with
high desire: till her present life, with its hollow luxury, its
spiceless ease, its savorless pretence, had become abominable to her.
Her heart was in the room wherein she stood, set all upon the man for
whom she posed: whose eye, as yet, looked upon her not as man but as
workman, who sought only the secret message in her written for his
brush.

Through the first two hours, during which she alternately posed and
rested, the two of them spoke scarce one word. In the beginning, their
sensations were crudely formulative. But they rose, by degrees, till,
at the end, each was beset by a force so powerful that action had become
an impossibility. Their farewell ran thus:

"When do you wish me again, Monsieur?"

"When you can come, Madame."

"In tw