A slender lad of southern origin, whom a band of vagrants, making for the sea to embark to South America, had cast off to die in the ditch.

Clemenceau gave him shelter, nursed him--for his wife would have nothing to do with a beggar--and to cover the hospitality and soothe the Italian's pride, paid him liberally to be his model.

He was named Antonino and might have been a descendant of the Emperor from his lofty features, burning eye and fine sentiments.

Healed, able to resume his journey and offered a loan to make it smooth, he effusively uttered a declaration of gratitude and devotion, and vowed to remain the slave of the man who had saved him from a miserable death.
A good work rarely goes unrewarded.

Antonino, who had never touched a piece of colored chalk to a black stone, soon revealed strong gift as a draftsman and served his new master with brightness and taste.
Left lonely by his wife, each day more and more estranged, Felix loved to labor with the youth in the tasks to both congenial.