"
"There now! I have vexed you!" And Florian took her hand and kissed
it. "Forgive me, sweetest!--Look at me--give me a smile!--Ah! That
is kind!" and he conveyed an expression of warm tenderness into his
eyes as Angela turned her charming face upon him, softened and
radiant with the quick affection which always moved her at his voice
and caress. "I spoke foolishly! Of course my Angela could not be
patronised--she is too independent and gifted. I am very glad the
Queen is coming!"
"The Queen is coming?" echoed Gherardi, who just then advanced.
"Here? To see Donna Sovrani's picture? Ah, that will be an excellent
advertisement! But it would have been far better, my dear young
lady, had you arranged with me, or with some other one of my
confreres, to have the picture sent to the Vatican for the
inspection of His Holiness. The Popes, as you know, have from time
immemorial been the best patrons of art!"
"My picture would not please the Pope," said Angela quietly, "It
would more probably win his denunciation than his patronage."
Gherardi smiled. The idea of a woman--a mere woman imagining that
anything which she could do was powerful enough to bring down Papal
denunciation! The strange conceit of these feminine geniuses! He
could almost have laughed aloud.
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