Humiliating recollections of the great masters he aspired to rival forced themselves upon him; defects before unseen magnified themselves to deformities in his languid and discontented eyes.

He touched and retouched, but his hand failed him; he threw down his instruments in despair; he opened his casement: the day without was bright and lovely; the street was crowded with that life which is ever so joyous and affluent in the animated population of Naples.

He saw the lover, as he passed, conversing with his mistress by those mute gestures which have survived all changes of languages, the same now as when the Etruscan painted yon vases in the Museo Borbonico.
Light from without beckoned his youth to its mirth and its pleasures; and the dull walls within, lately large enough to comprise heaven and earth, seemed now cabined and confined as a felon's prison.

He welcomed the step of Mervale at his threshold, and unbarred the door.
"And is that all you have done ?" said Mervale, glancing disdainfully at the canvas.

"Is it for this that you have shut yourself out from the sunny days and moonlit nights of Naples ?" "While the fit was on me, I basked in a brighter sun, and imbibed the voluptuous luxury of a softer moon." "You own that the fit is over.