your salad last year was detestable; besides, we ought to have a little shade."
"How would you like a few full-grown trees and some shrubbery?"
"That wouldn't be so bad."
"Then why shouldn't we set out some firs? That would be splendid."
"Joking apart, it seems to me that we live high enough up that no one can dispute our right to have a few cedars here; the cedar takes kindly to the mountains."
"I want flowers; I shall plant some pinks and red roses that René d'Anjou was the first to exhibit in his gardens."
"He was also the first one who cultivated the Muscat grape."
"If you believe what I say, we are just as likely to have vines as we are to have forests."
"Have it your own way."
"Do you know that to have one's name handed down to posterity in connection with a flower is as great a glory as the best?"
•••••••
Eugène is alone in the atelier, alone, that is, with a model who neither speaks nor stirs. Arthur has started out early; there is every reason to hope that this time he will succeed in reaching the Arsenal.
Eugène is talking to himself. While painting away industriously he gives himself bits of good advice, heaps reproaches on himself, occasionally indulges himself with a few words of approval; he imitates the words and tones of the master under whom he
