tion. The Arab 'bournus' which
was wrajjped round her never
trembled, but when the
time for rest came, she
stepped down from
the platform,
and ap-
proaching
the most
emphatic of the
talkers, dealt him
a tremendous slap on
the cheek, such as raised
a very storm of applause.
And then a voice came in
the silence — ' Oh ! cruel Bibbiana, one would say that
like Samson you had struck nie with the jaw-bone
of thy father ! I have lost a tooth by the attack I '
And it was true. The tooth was passed round
from hand to hand, and it was immediately tied uj)
and nailed to the wall with a Latin inscription
taken from I do not know what remote stone —
most justly unknown. The lines ran thus: —
' Ad memento nianibus Bibbiana valentissima
difenditricis virtutem sua ! ' Amen, it con-
cludes, and the hands of Bibbiana have become
historical.
Then there is Narella, who you would say had
just arrived from the secret shades ot the Black
Forest. A true, tiny fairy of the northern legends,
dreamt of by Heine, and evoked by Goethe.
She is a most beautiful blonde, very delicate,
whose complexion reminds one a little by its
tint of the pipes of Bohemia and works in
mother-of-pearl. A large soft doll, that shuts
her eyes, says ' Mamma ' and ' Papa,' and some
other phrases, inclining to melancholy, and count-
ing the sittings, but nothing more. In order to
jiersuade her to come to your studio, you must
promise her some flowers, an easy position, and
some good cioarettes.
Finally, lest this catalogue begins to tire you,
I introduce to you Lucia, biu'sting with laughter,
playing a tambourine, something like a wild colt in a
large field. Lucietta is neither pretty nor ugly, but
she is gay, merry and sprightly, if you do not have
too much of her ; sometimes she becomes unbearable,
and is chased from the studios like the plague. Then
in the season of flowers she abandons the arts, and
gives herself entirely to Flora, becoming the torment
of the ' Piazza di Spagna ' and of the ' Via Con-
dotti,' encouraged unfortunately by the delicate
daughters of the Tweed and Tyne, who smile at her
as they buy her little bunches of violets. But
nothing is more pleasing or more thoroughly pic-
turesque than that ' bizarre ' figure in the midst of
a very rainbow, full of colour, or under the intense
blue of a sky, embroidered by an almond tree in
flower. These examples are cliosen from the most
usual, and, if you wear a felt hat, with broad brim, considerably worn, and assume the abstracted air proper for an artist of the day, you will have them all drawn in with one cast of the net, but understand well you will have them all at the studio
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