red
me that he had no intention of proceeding beyond the outlines of the
governor's portrait; but that, as a lover and an artist, he could not
deny himself the gratification of portraying the matchless form and
features of the woman he adored.

The day was declining when we quitted our cool retreat to ascend the
mountain behind us, and inhale the pure breezes which played around
its summit. We gazed with long and lingering delight upon the bright
landscapes of Lombardy, as they glowed beneath us in the parting
sunbeams, and the shades of night were fast falling around us when we
crossed the lake on our return to the villa.

CHAPTER IV.

Early on the following morning, the younger brother of Laura called to
request the promised attendance of Colonna at the Villa Foscari, and I
determined to accompany him, hoping, by my presence, to remind the
young painter of the necessity of exercising a vigilant control over
his feelings. The precaution was, however, unnecessary. He sustained,
with singular self-mastery, the demeanour of an artist and a stranger;
and appeared, while sketching the form and features of his lovely
mistress, to have no other object than to seize the most important and
characteristic peculiarities of his model. He requested that she would
occasionally walk round the saloon, and freely indulge in familiar
converse with her friends, as if no artist were present. His object
was, he added, to accomplish, not a tame and lifeless copy, but a
portrait, stamped with those peculiar attributes and graces which are
best elicited by a free and unconstrained movement of limb and
feature.

Thus admirably did he mask the lover, and assume the look and language
of an artist ambitious to recommend himself to opulent employers.

The sensitive and unhappy Laura had less command over her feelings,
and I could occasionally observe a furtive glance beaming from her
dark and humid eye upon the elegant painter; but when she addressed
him, it was with the air and language of condescension to one whose
services might be purchased; thus endeavouring to disguise the strong
and almost irrepressible emotion which quivered beneath the surface.

Her mother never quitted her during the sitting; Barozzo and the
Foscari visited the saloon occasionally; and I remained to control
the lover, and, at the same time, to improve myself by observing
the artist. The fine lineaments of Laura were too deeply engraven on
the heart of Colonna t