Page images
PDF
EPUB

"First to look at some sculpture," he said, taking his watch from his pocket to see the time. "Then to the Marchioness of Coleraine's, at Roehampton."

"Why, nothing could be better. What sort of a fête does the marchioness give?" "I know nothing of that. But we shall see every body there. It will be as good as a band-day in the Park."

"You have a groom with you, I see," rejoined Freeborn. "Give him Ali, and

join us."

"As you please," said Bellstar, and in a few moments he was by the side of Tremore.

CHAPTER XI.

'Tis not enough your counsel still be true-
Blunt truths more mischiefs than nice falsehoods do;
These must be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown, proposed as things forgot.
Without good breeding, truth is disapproved,
That only makes superior sense beloved.

POPE.

THE barouche stopped at the door of one of the handsome modern erections in the new quarter of town known as Tyburnia. Freeborn, in his gossiping way, let Florian into the secret history of the artist. He was an Italian refugee, and attempted to gain a reputation here by models of colossal sculpture. As the natural consequence, he was neglected, and would have starved, had not Bellstar (who raved about the regeneration of Italy) assisted him, and taken him by the hand. Afterwards he proved very successful in composing small groups of sculpture-groups for drawing-room tables and

consoles; and, as they fell in with the taste of the town, no collection was now thought perfect, which had not something of Moltoni's in it. But he could not quite get over his high-art folly; and every now and then he exhibited some monstrosity, as if to show how vilely he could design and draw on a large scale—though his miniature pieces were full of fancy, truth, and nature.

The artist was in his studio, and answered to the character given of him. He endeavoured to detain his visiters before a work on which he was engaged, representing from the Inferno Count Ugolino gnawing the Ghibelline's skull; but Freeborn hastily turned from this, to some of the small groups in marble and alabaster which were disposed round the room. He had all the terms of connoisseurship on his lips; and as his eye had some experience in art, he selected a composition which gracefully told a story. It was taken from Scott's ballad of "the Fire King," and depicted the page of the recreant knight at the instant that the helmet was struck from her head, disclosing

"The blue eyes, and the ringlets of gold"

of the maiden he had forsaken, and who had

come to follow his fortunes. The stern ex pression of the knight's face had not died away, nor was his hand with which he dealt the blow unclasped; yet amazement, horror, and remorse seemed to be wakening within him. The maiden had been struck to her knee, and was in the act of falling lower, with her hands clasped together, as if deprecating his wrath, while a pure smile of selfsacrificing love was on her lips. To make this figure charming, the artist had exhausted all the resources of his talent. The lovely features and the exquisite neck, with the long hair falling down the shoulders, contrasted strikingly with the warlike casque at her feet, and with the sword at her side and her mailed breast. The spirit, sentiment, and beauty of the composition, justified the choice of Freeborn. Tremore had the good sense to admire it equally; and the artist, when he found his visiters incapable of appreciating the merits of his great work, acknowledged-though with some vexation -that he thought it one of the happiest of his merely pretty groups. Bellstar alone was silent on its merits. When pressed for his opinion, he said he admired the thought; but he coldly pointed out some technical

defects in the composition, and doubted whether, under the supposed circumstances, and the direction of the knight's hand, the page could have fallen in that attitude. Criticism of that kind, as few persons can appreciate it, rarely meets with a welcome reception; and the remark of the artist, though contemptuously spoken, seemed just, that groups of that kind were not tried by the same rules which determine the lasting fame of the masterpieces of genius.

Freeborn took Tremore aside and whispered to him

"You will patronise art, of course? This is a good opportunity. Buy the work, and your good taste will pass into a proverb in a week. Every one comes here."

Florian readily assented. The artist, when appealed to, named a price which Tremore would have thought a fortune the previous night; but he now complacently wrote a check for the amount. With Freeborn he was intent on examining the work, when they were startled by a voice behind them exclaiming

"How shockingly sentimental!"

Freeborn instantly recognised the newcomer as an acquaintance, as did Bellstar

VOL. I,

N

« PreviousContinue »