father did for the prodigal son; but we live in miniature. Instead of
neat-cattle, only a capon!...."

"But you're not drinking, you're not drinking! Isabella, fill his glass.
Look! only see these scars on his hands and neck. It will need a great
deal of lace to conceal them. No, no, they are marks of honor, you must
show them. Come here, I will kiss this great scar, on your neck, my
brave, faithful fellow, and some day a fair one will follow my example.
If Antonio were only here! There's a kiss for him, and another, there,
there. Art bestows it, Art, for whom you have saved Moor!"

A master's kiss in the name of Art! It was sweeter than the beautiful
Carmen's lips!

Coello was himself an artist, a great painter! Where could his peers be
found--or those of Moor, and the architect Herrera, who entered soon
after. Only those, who consecrated their lives to Art, the word of
words, could be so noble, cheerful, kind.

How happy he was when he went to bed! how gratefully he told his beloved
dead, in spirit, what had fallen to his lot, and how joyously he could
pray!

The next morning he went with a full purse into the city, returning
elegantly dressed, and with neatly-arranged locks. The peinador had
given his budding moustache a bold twist upward.

He still looked thin and somewhat awkward, but the tall youth promised to
become a stately man.