The Romance of Giovanni Calvotti | Page 5

and went
downstairs. At a door at the foot of the stains stood the young lady who
had by misfortune brought about this adventure. She led me into the
room and to a lady who sat upon a sofa. The room was absolutely bare
of ornament, and I knew that they were very poor. But it was not
possible to think for a moment that Miss Grammont was anything but a

lady. She was old-fashioned and precise in her attire, and she is perhaps
forty years of age, but her face is as beautiful as a seraph's. She is calm
and sweet and quiet. She is like a Venetian night--sweet and venerable,
and moving to touches of soft music. I took tea with them both--a
simple meal. We talked of art and of Italy. I brought down my sketches
and my violin at their request. I played to them--all manner of
things--and they did me the honour to be delighted.
I am now in my own room again, and have expended my last candle
whilst I have given myself the charming task to set down this day's
adventures. My candle is so nearly burned out that it will not last
another minute. I foresee that I shall go to bed in the----
CHAPTER II.
--ON THE SECOND FLOOR.
I have just found this manuscript among my music, and to charm a
lonely evening I will continue it. I remember that the candle went out
so suddenly that I lost the place of my pen, or I would have completed
the sentence. In the morning I had other things to think of. My landlady
came up for the picture and took it away. In five minutes I heard a step
upon the stairs, and opening my door I saw Cecilia--I have not told you
my little English angel's name until now--with the picture in her hands.
For a moment I thought that my inestimable uncle had refused to accept
it, but I saw by her smiling face that it was no misfortune which had
brought her back.
'There is a gentleman downstairs, signor, who wishes to buy your
picture. He is waiting in the hall. Shall I send him up? It is the
gentleman who jumped from the cab yesterday and caused the
accident.'
I besought her not to take so much trouble, and myself ran downstairs.
There was an Englishman, broad-shouldered, ruddy, and iron-grey,
with bushy eyebrows and blue eyes and a square chin.
'Do you wish to see me, sir?' I asked him.

'If you're the painter of the picture I saw just now--yes.'
'It is something of a climb upstairs,' I warned him.
He took the warning as an invitation, and went upstairs, stepping firmly
and solidly in his heavy boots. When he reached my room, he took his
hat off and I saw he was bald. He had a good face, and a high forehead,
and he was evidently of the prosperous middle classes. Mademoiselle
had left the room, and had placed the picture upon the easel. He looked
round the room, and then faced the picture, square and
business-like--like an Englishman.
'Ah!' he said, 'that's the picture, is it? H'm. What do you want for it?'
I told him I had never yet sold a picture, and did not know what price to
set upon it.
'What have you done with the rest?' he said, looking round the room
again. 'This isn't the first you've painted.'
His bluntness amused me, and I laughed. He saw my circumstances,
and there could be no service in disguise. I told him of my estimable
Uncle.
'H'm?' he said, lifting his eyebrows. Then suddenly, 'What do you get
on 'em?'
'Twelve and sixpence each.'
'How many has he got?'
'Nine,' I answered.
'Got the tickets?' he said, examining the picture on the easel.
I produced them from a drawer.
'Five pounds fourteen,' he said to himself. 'A pound 'll pay the interest.
Call it six ten, roughly. Got anybody you can send out for 'em?'

I rang the bell, and by-and-by my landlady appeared.
'Look here,' said the stranger, taking out a purse. 'Take this six pounds
ten and that lot of pawn tickets, and send somebody to the
pawnbroker's to bring the pictures out.'
My landlady took the money and went downstairs. In ten minutes she
came back again with a boy behind her, carrying all my canvas children
home again. During this time the stranger said nothing. Now he took
the change in silver and copper from my landlady, said 'Eight,' and
nothing more, and then set the pictures one by one on the easel and
looked at them all in turn. When he had satisfied himself, he turned on
me again.
'Now, Signor----'
'Calvotti'--I helped him with my name.
'Now,