'EN COSTUME DE VILLE' 225 



the mortar of the afternoon's job. Moreover, forti- 

 fied during the pause by coffee and cognac, he posed 

 as though for a prolonged photograph. The stipu- 

 lated two hours sped by like a delirious dream. If 

 the model stood in need of restoratives, how much 

 more did not the artists require ! By ten of the 

 inexorable clock these enthusiasts for the Realisation 

 of the Streets were aware that a couple of hours at 

 this high pressure were to the placid studio week as 

 fifty years of Europe to a cycle of Cathay, but they 

 wiped their warm brows and enjoyed it. 



Thenceforth for some time the supply of models 

 equalled the demand. A chijfoniere, the perfume of 

 whose basket left no doubt as to its genuineness ; 

 a " jiauv^ enfant de soldat,^^ son of one of Madame 

 Rougemont's most particular friends, who created a 

 sensation by fainting in the middle of the seance ; 

 an ambiguous person, who, whether a " religious " or 

 no, had become possessed of a Brown Friar's habit 

 and looked the part; an old lady with one eye, who 

 sold dandelions, and performed a similar office to 

 the class by going away without warning at the end 

 of the first hour; all these took their turn to pose 

 in the dirty, picturesque atelier in the Rue de la 

 Grande Chaumiere. It was a bi-weekly entertain- 

 ment, and its promoters waxed proud as its fame 

 spread, and outsiders from other studios asked to 

 be allowed to join, and the crew who slopped and 

 scrabbled in their various media of black and white, 

 crowded thicker and thicker round the model " en 

 costume de ville.'" That was how Madame Rouge - 

 mont described the attire of her clients. 



There came, however, an evening when, at the 

 appointed hour, the model-stand was still vacant. 

 The promoters consulted together in darkling whis- 

 pers; their irresponsible adherents jibed and mur- 



Q 



