"You will paint the devil even blacker than he is." "The devil ?" repeated Gouache, raising his eyebrows with a slight smile.
"I was not aware--" "And yet you have been in Rome four years!" "I am very careful," returned Gouache.

"I never by any chance hear any evil of those whom I am to paint." "You have very well-bred ears, Monsieur Gouache.

I fear that if I had attended some of the meetings in your studio while Donna Tullia was having her portrait painted, I should have heard strange things.

Have they all escaped you ?" Gouache was silent for a moment.

It did not surprise him to learn that the omniscient Cardinal was fully acquainted with the doings in his studio, but he looked curiously at the great man before he answered.