y hand was
getting in." And he remembered that no one had ever interrupted him,
when he worked in his painting-room in the Vasilievskue Ostrov. Nikita
would sit hour after hour without moving a muscle: you might paint him
as much as you liked; he would go to sleep in the attitude he was fixed
in. And the artist discontentedly laid his pencil and palette on a
chair, and stood pensively before the canvass. He was aroused from his
reverie by a compliment addressed to him by the fashionable lady. He
darted towards the door to show out his visitors: on the stairs he
received an invitation to dine with them the following week, and with a
cheerful air he re-entered his rooms. The aristocratic style of his
visitors had quite fascinated him. Up to this time he had held such
beings unapproachable, born only to glide about in a splendid carriage
with liveried footmen and a laced and bearded coachman, throwing a calm
indifferent glance on the humble foot-passenger as he plodded by in a
shabby cloak. And yet, here was one of these exquisite beings calling
upon him: he was painting her portrait, and had received an invitation
to dine with her. Intoxicated with vanity and delight, he treated
himself to a splendid dinner, went to the theatre in the evening, and
again, without the slightest occasion, drove about the town in a
carriage.

For some days he did nothing but arrange his rooms and listen for the
sound of his bell. At last the lady arrived, with her pale daughter. He
made them sit down, wheeled up his easel with a strong affectation of
fashionable manner, and began to paint. He saw in his delicate sitter
much that, being cleverly caught, would give high value to the portrait:
he perceived that he might produce something quite peculiar and
characteristic, if he could render it with the same accuracy and
completeness with which nature herself had placed it before him. His
heart even felt a slight tremor when he found himself expressing what no
one else perhaps had ever remarked. His attention became riveted on his
canvass, and he again forgot the aristocratic descent of his sitter.
Holding his breath from eagerness, he gradually saw the delicate
features and transparent skin come out upon his canvass. He had caught
every half-tint, even the slight ivory-like yellowness, the nearly
imperceptible blueish tone under the eyes, and was just in the act of
seizing a little mole upon the forehead, when he suddenly heard behind
him the v