Fata Morgana: A Romance of Art Student Life in Paris

Poufaille, seated on a high stool, was copying in the Louvre Gallery. Since his share of glory had been stolen from him, he had become as downcast as a caged lion from whom his...

They looked at each other as if astonished to be once again together. Helia admired Phil, whom she found handsomer and stronger—more, indeed, of a man. Phil scanned the refined...

Poufaille and Phil were now friends again—really they had been so for some time, ever since the day when Phil had taken to Poufaille Ethel’s order for a picture. Poufaille was i...

Henceforth Phil had glorious days. Poufaille, whom he made his assistant gardener, dug and watered and trimmed the alleys. It increased Phil’s expenses, but what a pleasure for...

He was in front of the entrance of a music-hall. On a strip of cotton cloth he read, in huge letters, “PUNCH d’INDIGNATION!” The name of Vieillecloche was displayed everywhere,...

The day for which Phil had waited so impatiently was come at last—the day of the _chasse à courre_. Ethel left the hunt and came back alone to the glade where grandma, a little...

“I thought the Grojeans were absent—their house has been all the time shut up,” Caracal said to Ethel; “but I caught sight of them yesterday. They must be back.”

An automobile, with Miss Rowrer’s brother Will conducting it himself, was rolling slowly along. Will had just arrived from America, to rest in France from the worries of busines...

Grand’mère de Grojean was talking about camping out, with many an “_est-ce possible!_” and “_Grand Dieu!_” and Mademoiselle Yvonne was looking at the dust in the distance, while...

The next day Helia was still sleeping when Sœurette aroused her. The little one was trotting along the carpet in her bare feet, talking and laughing to herself in the sunny room...

The conveyance and escort for Ethel, with Suzanne and Helia, were awaiting them at the other side of the city. There were also horses for Will and Phil. Sœurette was to remain b...

As he had himself said to Ethel the day of his visit to Phil’s studio, Conrad di Tagliaferro, Duke of Morgania, was much to be pitied—he had to quit Paris!

The duke, imposing and superb, was present; and Caracal, with his monocle in his eye, was beside him. It was the first night of Helia. If it had been a common first night at the...

“Poufaille is either crazy or drunk,” he said to himself, as he went through the fair with his paint-box in his hand. “Suzanne won’t have him! I have nothing to do with it! Is t...

A blue sea—a blue sky. The yacht was sailing under deep azure, reflected back by calm waters. It was unlike the jolts and staccato teuf-teuf of the automobile; it was gentle as...

The camping-party and the Grojeans were doing the fair. At the foot of the platform, before the circus door, an open-mouthed circle listened to the girl-clown dressed as Pierret...

Suzanne delighted in this restaurant. The food was bad, but there was laughter. Sometimes messieurs with high hats invited her to chic places. Suzanne would refuse the chic rest...

Later in the day Suzanne appeared, and timidly begged Miss Rowrer to excuse her. “Mademoiselle Helia has gone from the tarpaulin—she is swimming straight for the cliff. If Miss...

Phil prepared his colors. The ball was forgotten, and the Indian costume was laid away for another year. Outside, the cries of the plumber and old-clo’ man alternated, like a tr...

Helia was far away, swimming toward the yacht, before the duke came down from the castle where he was presiding at the reception of the notables. At the time when the child was...

One effort and then another, and little by little Phil freed himself. So far his health could stand it. He had glimpses of better days. Along with his will his talent also grew...

When the yacht moored in front of the ducal castle of Morgania, Morgana was surely absent, for no fantastic mirage welcomed their coming. Out of courtesy to the duke, a salvo of...

At daybreak, Phil Longwill, the young American painter, entered his studio, threw away his cigar, gulped down the contents of his water-jug—and then slipped into an arm-chair an...

“You’ll have to hang yourself, my valorous Yvonne, for we have had our battle without you! The truth is, we have narrowly escaped being spitted and roasted. That’s a promising b...

As a consequence of their meeting, Ethel became Phil’s pupil. Having made his acquaintance at the Comtesse de Donjeon’s, she gave him a “chance,” as grandma had told her to do....

When the Phil who did not go into “society,” and knew neither duke nor Miss Rowrer,—when that Phil came to Paris, after parting from Helia in the courtyard near the circus, he h...

We should need words from the old, old time, worn from long use, to give an idea of Mme. de Grojean’s house in her little corner of the provinces. It was typical of its kind and...

“For a reigning duke,” Caracal went on, “a grand seigneur, a Parisian in soul, to have such timidity! It was worth while dining at impossible hours and passing evenings with a r...

They laid Helia down at the foot of Phil’s picture, on the great ancestral throne on which the duke had hoped to seat himself beside Miss Rowrer. The iron candelabrum, hanging f...

Phil had been struck down by a rush of blood to the brain. For a long time he had been living as in a dream. His fits of absent-mindedness had already amazed Suzanne. Too artifi...

Miss Ethel Rowrer, daughter of the great Redmount Rowrer, had just arrived in Paris. She was preceded by the fame of her father, the famous Chicagoan, a business Napoleon. From...

Ethel finished her letter, and went up on deck to find grandma. A splendid day was appearing, with its marvelous light flooding space. Morgana was building her palaces in the he...

“Foreigners, stay at home!” the “Tocsin” printed. “Remember the night of the 13th March, 1871, of the day of November 22, 1876. Respect the verdict of the 363. Tremble! The peop...

The next day, as they entered the Hall of the Ancestors, grandma dropped the duke’s arm to seat herself in a great chair. But the chair was in carved wood and very hard. Decided...

He was sure that Ethel knew nothing of his past. He even suspected the events to which she had alluded, for he knew Will’s story well. Moreover, she had since then shown herself...

He was angry with himself for having come. Especially he was frightened at the feeling which had just been urging him to punish the singer on the stage. There was something more...

At the school Phil was successful. The walls of his room became covered with sketches,—life studies, landscapes, compositions,—and more and more studies of Helia, studies withou...