carlet and gold!--Thou art here to be my inspiration. Mayst
thou find me worthy!--Ah, see! The world shall kneel to us yet: shall
glorify us with laurel and with gold.--Yes, it has come at last,
beloved, the freedom of our love!"

And the woman, with a half-sob, yielded herself to the strong, young
arms, nor wasted a thought upon that crushed and broken talent now lying
between them, dead, upon the paint-stained floor.

* * * * *

Such was the beginning of their hundred days: the three months' madness
that was to become the amazement and the scandal of the Students'
Quarter. Irina's history, well known to every one except her lover, kept
this strange romance always vivid, always replete with dramatic
possibilities. Meantime, however, during the first weeks, the small
_menage_ prospered amazingly. Irina had been living for some time among
cloying luxuries. She brought with her a considerable sum of money and
jewels, the amount of which seemed, to Joseph's eyes, princely enough.
He rejoiced over their sudden access of wealth; while she amused herself
by adapting her tastes to the comparative poverty of her present life.
Moreover, the enthusiasm that was really borne from the pleasant novelty
of this existence, seemed, to the boy, wholly the result of her love for
him. He had been possessed by a sudden demon of work.--Ah! _How_ he
worked, during those brief weeks! He had resigned, now, from his
classes, and was painting for the public. In the beginning, his things
caught the general fancy, and he had an unquestioned vogue. It was
pot-boiling, certainly; but, for the moment, glaring faults were
concealed by the meteoric brilliancy of his technique. Irina was his
only model. But what the world likes, it is willing to have repeated;
and head after head of the beautiful woman was sold, and still the
dealers clamored for more.

Of his old work--those laborious little studies of still life or nature,
the public would have none. Even the two life-sized pictures, which had
more than a little merit in them, remained unpurchased. Both were for
sale now; for Joseph needed no portrait of what was his; and Prince
G---- naturally never commanded his to be delivered.

There did, at length, come one offer for the Carmen picture; but of it
Joseph never heard. It had been made by a man who, calling at the studio
one day, found Mademoiselle Irina alone; and to whose impulsive
proposition she had replied--w