To be handsome, smooth, talented, jealous--all this is
Villa Rocca's "metier." He is a true Italian.
CHAPTER XVI.
NEARING EACH OTHER.--THE VALOIS HEIRS.
Paris is a human hive. Thousands labor to restore its beauty. The
stream of life ebbs and flows once more on the boulevards. The
galleries reopen. Armand labors in the Louvre. He finished the
velvet-eyed Madonna, copied after Murillo's magic hand. He chafes
under Raoul's laurels. The boy would be a man. Every day the
sculptor tells of the home of the wealthy Spaniard. The girl is at
her convent again. Raoul meets Madame Natalie "en ami de maison."
He tells of Count Villa Rocca's wooing. Marriage may crown the
devotion of the courtly lover.
The bust in marble is a success. Raoul is in the flush of glory.
His patroness directs him to idealize for her "Helen of Troy."
Armand selects as his next copy, a grand inspiration of womanly
beauty. He, too, must pluck a laurel wreath.
Under the stress of emulation, his fingers tremble in nervous ardor.
He has chosen a subject which has myriad worshippers.
Day by day, admirers recognize the true spirit of the masterpiece.
Throngs surround the painter, who strains his artistic heart.
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