before, and revenge it cruelly. She is a person that I, for one, don't
want to be at war with."

"The slight these young ladies mean to put upon her is all the more
unkind," said another young girl, "because yesterday, Mademoiselle
Ginevra was very sad. Her father, they say, has just resigned. They
ought not to add to her trouble, for she was very considerate of them
during the Hundred Days. Never did she say a word to wound them. On
the contrary, she avoided politics. But I think our _ultras_ are acting
more from jealousy than from party spite."

"I have a great mind to go and get Mademoiselle Piombo's easel and
place it next to mine," said Matilde Roguin. She rose, but second
thoughts made her sit down again.

"With a character like hers," she said, "one can't tell how she would
take a civility; better wait events."

"Ecco la," said the young girl with the black eyes, languidly.

The steps of a person coming up the narrow stairway sounded through
the studio. The words: "Here she comes!" passed from mouth to mouth,
and then the most absolute silence reigned.

To understand the importance of the ostracism imposed by the act of
Amelie Thirion, it is necessary to add that this scene took place
toward the end of the month of July, 1815. The second return of the
Bourbons had shaken many friendships which had held firm under the
first Restoration. At this moment families, almost all divided in
opinion, were renewing many of the deplorable scenes which stain the