'EN COSTUME DE VILLE' 223 



the Auvcrgnois with the goats, sounds redolent of 

 morning and brightness. 



The Idle Apprcntiee stays not to stow his carton, 

 but flees, as it were, in his naked feet from the respon- 

 sibilities of the stove, and gets him swiftly out into 

 the cheerful highways of the Quartier Latin. It 

 may be that he has quieted his conscience with an 

 undertaking to make quick sketches in the streets, 

 or in the Luxembourg Gardens, an exercise often 

 enjoined by the Professor. But no one who has not 

 tried can know how futile and baffling such sketching 

 can often be. The Argus-eyed " Gardiens " have 

 first to be eluded, as, for some reason best known to 

 the Parisian authorities, it is absolutely forbidden to 

 sketch animate or inanimate nature in public gardens 

 or galleries. Even if a sheltering bush affords a 

 screen from their vigilance, the perambulating models, 

 yea, even the models in perambulators, of which 

 the Gardens yield so rich a crop, move or are moved 

 as if by instinct from the concealed artist. 



There remain the streets; a bench in the wide 

 Boulevard St. Michel — ^the " BouV Miche\'' centre 

 and epitome of the Quartier Latin — is a position 

 that provides subjects of infinite variety and interest. 

 But after a page or two has been filled in with flat- 

 brimmed top hats and abundant chevelures, with 

 indications of as much of the subsequent costume as 

 an instant's glance has impressed on the retina, this 

 also is apt to pall. It is a strange thing how inherent 

 a reluctance the average human being feels to his or her 

 commemoration on paper. This might, perhaps, be 

 imderstood if the commemoration were exhibited, 

 but, as a rule, before more than the hat of the model 

 has been suggested, the artist eye has communicated 

 its inevitable warning, and the maid whom he, as 

 the poet says, has singled from the world, hurries 



