Part 34 (1/2)
”No, not a word of it!” rejoined the other.
”You 're a Neapolitan, I think I heard him say.”
”So my pa.s.sport states.”
”Ah, he won't say that he is one, though,” interposed his Lords.h.i.+p, in English. ”Do you mind that, Baynton?”
”Yes, I remarked it,” was the reply.
”And how came you here originally?” asked Selby, turning towards the youth.
”I came here to study and to work. There is always enough to be had to do in this place, copying the works of great masters; and at one's spare moments there is time to try something of one's own.”
”And have you done anything of that kind?”
”Yes, I have begun. I have attempted two or three.”
”We should like to see them,--eh, Baynton?”
”Of course, when we 've finished our wine. It's not far off, is it?”
”A few minutes' walk; but not worth even that, when the place is full of things really worth seeing. There's Danneker's 'Bathing Nymph,' and Canova's 'Dead Cupid,' and Rauch's 'Antigone,' all within reach.”
”Mind that, Baynton; we must see all these to-morrow. Could you come about with us, and show us what we ought to see?”
”Who knows if I shall not be on the road to-morrow?” said the youth, smiling faintly.
”Oh, I think not, if there's really nothing against you; if it's only mere suspicion.”
”Just so!” said the other, and drank off his wine.
”And you are able to make a good thing of it here,--by copying, I mean?”
asked his Lords.h.i.+p, languidly.
”I can live,” said the youth; ”and as I labor very little and idle a great deal, that is saying enough, perhaps.”
”I 'm not sure the police are not right about him, after all, Baynton,”
said his Lords.h.i.+p; ”he doesn't seem to care much about his trade;” and Ma.s.sy was unable to repress a smile at the remark.
”You don't understand English, do you?” asked Selby, with a degree of eagerness very unusual to him.
”Yes, I am English by birth,” was the answer.
”Englis.h.!.+ and how came you to call yourself a Neapolitan? What was the object of that?”
”I wished to excite less notice and less observation here, and, if possible, to escape the jealousy with which Englishmen are regarded by the authorities; for this I obtained a pa.s.sport at Naples.”
Baynton eyed him suspiciously as he spoke, and as he sipped his wine continued to regard him with a keen glance.