The master then went from easel to easel, scolding, flattering, jesting, and making, as usual, his jests more dreaded than his reprimands.Ginevra had not obeyed the professor's order, but remained at her post, firmly resolved not to quit it.She took a sheet of paper and began to sketch in sepia the head of the hidden man.A work done under the impulse of an emotion has always a stamp of its own.The faculty of giving to representations of nature or of thought their true coloring constitutes genius, and often, in this respect, passion takes the place of it.So, under the circumstances in which Ginevra now found herself, the intuition which she owed to a powerful effect upon her memory, or, possibly, to necessity, that mother of great things, lent her, for the moment, a supernatural talent.The head of the young officer was dashed upon the paper in the midst of an awkward trembling which she mistook for fear, and in which a physiologist would have recognized the fire of inspiration.From time to time she glanced furtively at her companions, in order to hide the sketch if any of them came near her.But in spite of her watchfulness, there was a moment when she did not see the eyeglass of the pitiless Amelie turned full upon the drawing from the shelter of a great portfolio.
Mademoiselle Thirion, recognizing the portrait of the mysterious man, showed herself abruptly, and Ginevra hastily covered the sheet of paper.
"Why do you stay there in spite of my advice, mademoiselle?" asked the professor, gravely.
The pupil turned her easel so that no one but the master could see the sketch, which she placed upon it, and said, in an agitated voice:--"Do you not think, as I do, that the light is very good? Had I not better remain here?"Servin turned pale.As nothing escapes the piercing eyes of malice, Mademoiselle Thirion became, as it were, a sharer in the sudden emotion of master and pupil.
"You are right," said Servin; "but really," he added, with a forced laugh, "you will soon come to know more than I do."A pause followed, during which the professor studied the drawing of the officer's head.
"It is a masterpiece! worthy of Salvator Rosa!" he exclaimed, with the energy of an artist.
All the pupils rose on hearing this, and Mademoiselle Thirion darted forward with the velocity of a tiger on its prey.At this instant, the prisoner, awakened, perhaps, by the noise, began to move.Ginevra knocked over her stool, said a few incoherent sentences, and began to laugh; but she had thrown the portrait into her portfolio before Amelie could get to her.The easel was now surrounded; Servin descanted on the beauty of the copy which his favorite pupil was then making, and the whole class was duped by this stratagem, except Amelie, who, slipping behind her companions, attempted to open the portfolio where she had seen Ginevra throw the sketch.But the latter took it up without a word, and placed it in front of her.The two young girls then looked at each other fixedly, in silence.
"Come, mesdemoiselles, take your places," said Servin."If you wish to do as well as Mademoiselle di Piombo, you mustn't be always talking fashions and balls, and trifling away your time as you do."When they were all reseated before their easels, Servin sat down beside Ginevra.
"Was it not better that I should be the one to discover the mystery rather than the others?" asked the girl, in a low voice.
"Yes," replied the painter, "you are one of us, a patriot; but even if you were not, I should still have confided the matter to you."Master and pupil understood each other, and Ginevra no longer feared to ask:--"Who is he?"
"An intimate friend of Labedoyere, who contributed more than any other man, except the unfortunate colonel, to the union of the 7th regiment with the grenadiers of Elba.He was a major in the Imperial guard and was at Waterloo.""Why not have burned his uniform and shako, and supplied him with citizen's clothes?" said Ginevra, impatiently.
"He will have them to-night."
"You ought to have closed the studio for some days.""He is going away."
"Then they'll kill him," said the girl."Let him stay here with you till the present storm is over.Paris is still the only place in France where a man can be hidden safely.Is he a friend of yours?" she asked.
"No; he has no claim upon me but that of his ill-luck.He came into my hands in this way.My father-in-law, who returned to the army during the campaign, met this young fellow, and very cleverly rescued him from the claws of those who captured Labedoyere.He came here to defend the general, foolish fellow!""Do you call him that!" cried Ginevra, casting a glance of astonishment at the painter, who was silent for a moment.
"My father-in-law is too closely watched to be able to keep him in his own house," he resumed."So he brought him to me, by night, about a week ago.I hoped to keep him out of sight in this corner, the only spot in the house where he could be safe.""If I can be useful to you, employ me," said Ginevra."I know the Marechal de Feltre.""Well, we'll see," replied the painter.
This conversation lasted too long not to be noticed by all the other girls.Servin left Ginevra, went round once more to each easel, and gave such long lessons that he was still there at the hour when the pupils were in the habit of leaving.
"You are forgetting your bag, Mademoiselle Thirion," said the professor, running after the girl, who was now condescending to the work of a spy to satisfy her jealousy.
The baffled pupil returned for the bag, expressing surprise at her carelessness; but this act of Servin's was to her fresh proof of the existence of a mystery, the importance of which was evident.She now ran noisily down the staircase, and slammed the door which opened into the Servins' apartment, to give an impression that she had gone; then she softly returned and stationed herself outside the door of the studio.
