Some little time had then elapsed while he felt his way and the deep originality within him was being evolved.

He had tried etching on copper, but had soon come to wood engraving, and had attached himself to it in spite of the discredit into which it had fallen, lowered as it had been to the level of a mere trade.
Was there not here an entire art to restore and enlarge?
For his own part he dreamt of engraving his own drawings, of being at once the brain which conceives and the hand which executes, in such wise as to obtain new effects of great intensity both as regards perception and touch.

To comply with the wishes of his father, who desired each of his sons to have a trade, he earned his bread like other engravers by working for the illustrated newspapers.

But, in addition to this current work, he had already engraved several blocks instinct with wonderful power and life.
They were simply copies of real things, scenes of everyday existence, but they were accentuated, elevated so to say, by the essential line, with a maestria which on the part of so young a lad fairly astonished one.
"Do you want to engrave that ?" Francois asked him, as he placed his copy of Mantegna's figure in his portfolio.
"Oh! no, that's merely a dip into innocence, a good lesson to teach one to be modest and sincere.

Life is very different nowadays." Then, while walking along the streets--for Pierre, who felt growing sympathy for the two young fellows, went with them in the direction of Montmartre, forgetful of all else,--Antoine, who was beside him, spoke expansively of his artistic dreams.
"Colour is certainly a power, a sovereign source of charm, and one may, indeed, say that without colour nothing can be completely represented.
Yet, singularly enough, it isn't indispensable to me.