finding in this an
inexpensive pleasure and a certain distinction as an illustrious lady,
wished to make Renovales' acquaintance. He overcame the stand-offishness
of his nature that kept him away from all social relations. Why should
he not know high society? He could go wherever other men could. And he
put on his first dress-coat, and after the banquets of the duchess,
where his way of arguing with members of the Academy provoked peals of
merry laughter, he visited other salons and for several weeks was the
idol of society which, to be sure, was somewhat scandalized by his faux
pas, but still pleased with the timidity that overcame him after his
daring sallies. The younger set liked him because he handled a sword
like a Saint George. Although a painter and son of a blacksmith, he was
in every way a respectable person. The ladies flattered him with their
most amiable smiles, hoping that the fashionable artist would honor them
with a portrait gratis, as he had done with the duchess.

In this period of high-life, always in dress clothes from seven in the
evening, without painting anything but women who wanted to appear pretty
and discussed gravely with the artist which gown they should put on to
serve as a model, Renovales met his wife Josephina.

The first time that he saw her among so many ladies of arrogant bearing
and striking presence, he felt attracted towards her by force of
contrast. The bashfulness, the modesty, the insignificance of the girl
impressed him. She was small, her face offered no other beauty than that
of youth, her body had the charm of delicacy. Like himself, the poor
girl was there out of a sort of condescendence on the part of the
others; she seemed to be there by sufferance and she shrank in it, as if
afraid of attracting attention, Renovales always saw her in the same
evening gown somewhat old, with that appearance of weariness which a
garment constantly made over to follow the course of the fashions is
wont to acquire. The gloves, the flowers, the ribbons had a sort of
sadness in their freshness, as if they betrayed the sacrifices, the
domestic exertions it had taken to procure them. She was on intimate
terms with all the girls who made a triumphal entrance into the
drawing-rooms, inspiring praise and envy with their new toilettes; her
mother, a majestic lady, with a big nose and gold glasses, treated the
ladies of the noblest families with familiarity; but in spite of this
intimacy there was