"Ah, Belle Helene!" -- he began, but was cut short by the violent
opening of a window opposite.

"Bon dieu de bon dieu!" howled an injured gentleman. "To sleep is
impossible, tas d'imbeciles! -- "

And Helene's window closed with a snap.

Two

The day broke hot and stifling. The first sunbeams which chased the
fog from bridge and street also drove the mists from the cool thickets
of the Luxembourg Garden, and revealed groups of dragoons picketed in
the shrubbery.

"Dragoons in the Luxembourg!" cried the gamins to each other. "What
for?"

But even the gamins did not know -- yet.

At the great Ateliers of Messieurs Bouguereau and Lefebvre the first
day of the week is the busiest -- and so, this being Monday, the
studios were crowded.

The heat was suffocating. The walls, smeared with the refuse of a
hundred palettes, fairly sizzled as they gave off a sickly odor of
paint and turpentine. Only two poses had been completed, but the tired
models stood or sat, glistening with perspiration. The men drew and
painted, many of them stripped to the waist. The air was heavy with
tobacco smoke and the respiration of some two hundred students of half