The two young men took their seats at a table, laid with great elegance.
"No. I have no secrets," answered Esperance, "and I am unaware of any change."
"And yet the very tones of your voice are altered."
Esperance interrupted his friend with some impatience.
"Never mind that! I assure you that so far from having anything pleasant to communicate, I am out of spirits. My father has gone away."
Goutran looked at him with some surprise.
The intimacy between these young men had begun by Esperance wishing to buy a picture of Goutran's, which had obtained a great success at the Salon. The picture was of a gipsy girl playing a violin and dancing. Bertuccio went to the painter's studio, and offered an enormous sum for the picture, which was refused by Goutran. Accustomed to the gratification of all his caprices, he went himself to the studio. But the young man replied:
"You offer me, sir, twenty thousand francs for a canvas for which a picture dealer would not give me fifty louis, and yet I refuse. At the same time I am immensely flattered, and feel that I owe you an explanation. The picture is dear to me for reasons which are neither a drama nor a poem. I had a friend whom I adored. She had an affection of the lungs and I often took her into the country. We were one day at Mendon when we heard strange music, wild barbarian music. We approached softly, and beheld through the trees a young gipsy girl playing a violin and lightly dancing as she played. We listened in astonishment, for the music was most singular. Suddenly I felt that my companion was clinging heavily to my arm. She had fainted. I seized her in my arms, and bore her away. In a week death was very near. Then she said to me:
"'I must hear that gipsy again!'