Part 51 (2/2)
and the eyes, so keen and furtive. ... Nay, that eyelid should be a little more depressed at the corner.... Yes, yes--just so. Admirable!
There!--don't attempt to work it up. The least thing might mar the likeness. My dear fellow, what a service you have rendered me!”
”_Quatre-vingt mille diables_!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the model, his eyes riveted upon the sketch.
Muller laughed and looked.
”_Tiens_! Guichet,” said he, ”is that meant for a compliment?”
”Where did you see him?” asked the model, pointing down at the sketch.
”Why? Do you know him?”
”Where did you see him, I say?” repeated Guichet, impatiently.
He was a rough fellow, and garnished every other sentence with an oath; but he did not mean to be uncivil.
”At the Cafe Procope.”
”When?”
”About an hour ago. But again, I repeat--do you know him?”
”Do I know him? _Tonnerre de Dieu_!”
”Then who and what is he?”
The model stroked his beard; shook his head; declined to answer.
”Bah!” said he, gloomily, ”I may have seen him, or I may be mistaken.
'Tis not my affair.”
”I suspect Guichet knows something against this interesting stranger,”
laughed Flandrin. ”Come, Guichet, out with it! We are among friends.”
But Guichet again looked at the drawing, and again shook his head.
”I'm no judge of pictures, messieurs,” said he. ”I'm only a poor devil of a model. How can I pretend to know a man from such a _griffonage_ as that?”
And, taking up his big sword again, he retreated to his former post over against the picture. We all saw that he was resolved to say no more.
Flandrin, delighted with Muller's sketch, put it, with many thanks and praises, carefully away in one of the great folios against the wall.
”You have no idea, _mon cher_ Muller,” he said, ”of what value it is to me. I was in despair about the thing till I saw that fellow this morning in the Cafe; and he looked as if he had stepped out of the Middle Ages on purpose for me. It is quite a mediaeval face--if you know what I mean by a mediaeval face.”
”I think I do,” said Muller. ”You mean that there was a moyen-age type, as there was a cla.s.sical type, and as there is a modern type.”
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