her from
me. I--I see her!" he cried. "She is wondrously beautiful!"

At this moment Poussin heard the weeping of Gillette as she stood,
forgotten, in a corner.

"What troubles thee, my darling?" asked the painter, becoming once more
a lover.

"Kill me!" she answered. "I should be infamous if I still loved thee,
for I despise thee. I admire thee; but thou hast filled me with horror.
I love, and yet already I hate thee."

While Poussin listened to Gillette, Frenhofer drew a green curtain
before his Catherine, with the grave composure of a jeweller locking
his drawers when he thinks that thieves are near him. He cast at the two
painters a look which was profoundly dissimulating, full of contempt and
suspicion; then, with convulsive haste, he silently pushed them through
the door of his atelier. When they reached the threshold of his house he
said to them, "Adieu, my little friends."

The tone of this farewell chilled the two painters with fear.

* * * * *

On the morrow Porbus, alarmed, went again to visit Frenhofer, and found
that he had died during the night, after having burned his paintings.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Hidden Masterpiece, by Honore de Balzac

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