he forgot home, friends, country--all! To remain at Saventhem would be
death to his art--he must have before him the example of the masters.

Van Dyck said he would think about it; and Rubens took a look at his old
saddle-horse rolling in the pasture or wading knee-deep in clover, and
rode back home.

In a few days he sent Chevalier Nanni down to the country-seat at
Saventhem, to tell Van Dyck that he was on his way to Italy and that Van
Dyck had better accompany him.

Van Dyck concluded to go. He made tearful promises to his beautiful Anna
that he would return for her in a year.

And so the servant, who had become an expert in the making of Dutch
cheese, caught the horses out of the pasture, and having rebroken them,
the cavalcade started southward in good sooth.

* * * * *

It was four years before Van Dyck returned. He visited Milan, Florence,
Verona, Mantua, Venice and Rome, and made himself familiar with the works
of the masters. Everywhere he was showered with attention, and the fact
that he was the friend and protege of Rubens won him admittance into the
palaces of the nobles.

The four years in Italy widened his outlook and transformed him from a
merely handsome youth into a man of dignity and poise.

Great was his relief when he returned to Antwerp to hear that the pretty