Not that I believe very much in
holy water as a painter's medium! "He laughed,--he had a well-shaped
mouth and was fond of smiling, in order that he might show his even
pearly teeth, which contrasted becomingly with his dark moustache.
"Yes, my Angela has beautiful eyes,--and such soft, pretty hair!"
and he caressed it gently, "like little golden tendrils with a beam
of the sunlight caught in it! Is not that a pretty compliment? I
think I ought to have been a poet instead of a painter!"
"You are both," said Angela fondly, with a little sigh of rest and
pleasure as she nestled in his arms--"You will be the greatest
artist of your time when you paint large subjects instead of small
ones."
His tender hold of her relaxed a little.
"You think 'Phillida et les Roses' a small subject?" he asked, with
a touch of petulance in his tone, "Surely if a small study is
perfect, it is better than a large one which is imperfect?"
"Of course it is!" replied the girl quickly--"By smallness I did not
mean the size of the canvas,--I meant the character of the subject."
"There is nothing small in the beauty of woman!" declared Varillo,
with an enthusiastic air--"Her form is divine! Her delicious flesh
tints--her delicate curves--her amorous dimples--her exquisite
seductiveness--combined with her touching weakness--these qualities
make of woman the one,--the only subject for a painter's brush, when
the painter is a man!"
Involuntarily Angela thought of "Pon-Pon," who had posed for the
"Phillida," and a little shiver ran over her nerves like a sudden
wind playing on the chords of an AEolian harp.
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