"Nonsense! let me come in. You have got Anina in there to paint. I want to have one word with her, and will go away at once."
"And I tell you that you don't know what you are talking about."
"If you take it so," he said, "let me come in;" and he pushed the door with all his force.
I, who had been warned, was ready with all my strength, and shut the door in his face. I went back into the studio, and found the girl, who, only as yet half dressed, was trembling like a leaf. I crossed the court of Palazzo Borghese, and opened carefully the door which gave upon the Via Pandolfini, and made signs to the girl to follow me. I looked out on the street to make sure that the youth was not there, and said to the girl hastily, "Go away, and don't come back to me, even if you are accompanied by some one."
The young man stayed in the Via del Palagio, and walked up and down for some hours before my door; but I saw no more of him, and know nothing more. The conclusion: girls as models—never alone.
SUBSCRIPTION FOR THE ABEL.
I return to where I left off—to the Cain. There was in Florence at that time a certain English lady, Mrs Letitia Macartney, who had been living for some time in Siena. She wished so much to see the Abel reproduced in marble, that on her return to Siena she issued a paper which invited the Sienese to make a subscription for this purpose. I have before me that paper, dated 12th December 1842, a few days before the Grand Duchess of Russia had given me her commission. This invitation to my townsmen had a great success, for in a few days sheets were covered with signatures, among which all classes figured—beginning with the Governor Serristori, the Archbishop, the clergy, the university, the gentry, and the people, and finally the religious corporations. Certainly, that excellent lady could not have had a better result from her touching appeal, which ran as follows: "I beg the Sienese not to reject my humble petition, and that the poor as well as the rich, whoever reads these words, will put his signature, and will contribute a half paul to assist his townsman, who has so well proved that he deserves encouragement. Those who wish to give more than the small proposed sum can privately satisfy their generous impulses in the way they think best,—on this paper they are begged not to exceed the sum named." And by half pauls only, the not small sum of 100 scudi was collected; and if this good lady had added that the half paul was to be paid every month for a year or fourteen months, I am sure that my townsmen would not have refused it, and that the Abel would be to-day at Siena.
The sum of money and the list of subscribers were sent to me, and I preserve the latter jealously; and after these many years I read over the names with heartache, thinking how all these have disappeared, together with the good Signora Letizia. And now I am speaking of her, I will mention something which will cause her to be appreciated and loved, even as I loved and admired her.
MRS LETITIA MACARTNEY'S KINDNESS.
A short time after she had issued the appeal for my Abel, she came with a nephew and her two sisters to establish herself in Florence. She was about fifty years of age, enthusiastic for the beautiful wherever she found it. She had a small gallery of ancient pictures which she had collected with careful study in her wanderings through Italy. She had taken an apartment in the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella, and I often went there with my wife to pass the evening; and on her part the Signora Letizia often came to look me up in my studio. She liked to discuss with me artistic things, and when I could not attend to her, she said good-bye and went away.