224 STRAY 'AW AYS 



out of range with every appearance of offence. Is 

 this humihty or is it spite ? An opinion of human 

 nature that has been embittered by many such 

 reverses inchnes me to the latter theory. 



It was after a week or so of these out-of-door 

 futilities, where every second person who passed 

 along the pavements was " a subject," while not one 

 of them could be satisfactorily garnered in the sketch- 

 book, that it occurred to a few brave spirits that it 

 might be possible to steer a middle course between 

 the great heart of the nation in the streets and the 

 unclad alien in the studios. These, by a happy 

 inspiration, consulted a lady of high intelligence and 

 authority, the concierge to whom they daily truckled 

 and bowed down, Madame Rougemont. 



" Tiens ! " said Madame Rougemont, with several 

 refined Parisian oaths, as she peered forth at her 

 supplicants from the recesses of her dark and rankly- 

 furnished den, " ces Messieurs demand models in the 

 costume of every day? Et vous payerez /^'m, h^m, 

 Km " 



In effect, the whole affair was to be left to her. 

 One is not the concierge of a Quartier Latin rookery 

 for nothing, and the acquaintanceship that such a 

 position involves is both extended and peculiar. 

 What delicate negotiations were undertaken by 

 Madame Rougemont on behalf of those students will 

 never transpire, but it is an undoubted fact that on 

 the evening, and at the hour appointed by them, a 

 model such as they had hitherto sought in vain 

 presented himself at the tortuous, vine-draped passage 

 that led to their studio in the Rue de la Grande 

 Chaumiere; a swarthy workman, in his sky-blue 

 linen suit, whitened with plaster, and stained with 

 work. He had brought his spade, his boots were 

 still encrusted — O true Madame Rougemont ! — ^with 



