crevice of the partition; and she, through an instinct of weakness,
still defended her beautiful friend. Mademoiselle Roguin endeavored to
make her wait on the staircase after the class dispersed, that she
might prove to her the intimacy of Ginevra and the young man by
entering the studio and surprising them together. But Laure refused to
condescend to an act of espial which no curiosity could justify, and
she consequently became the object of much reprobation.

Before long Mademoiselle Thirion made known that she thought it
improper to attend the classes of a painter whose opinions were
tainted with patriotism and Bonapartism (in those days the terms were
synonymous), and she ceased her attendance at the studio. But,
although she herself forgot Ginevra, the harm she had planted bore
fruit. Little by little, the other young girls revealed to their
mothers the strange events which were happening at the studio. One day
Matilde Roguin did not come; the next day another girl was missing,
and so on, till the last three or four who were left came no more.
Ginevra and Laure, her little friend, were the sole occupants of the
deserted studio for three or four days.

Ginevra did not observe this falling off, nor ask the cause of her
companions' absence. As soon as she had invented means of
communication with Luigi she lived in the studio in a delightful
solitude, alone amid her own world, thinking only of the officer and
the dangers that threatened him. Though a sincere admirer of noble
characters that never betray their political faiths, she nevertheless
urged Luigi to submit himself to the royal authority, that he might be
released from his present life and remain in France. But to this he
would not consent. If passions are born and nourished, as they say,
under the influence of romantic causes, never did so many