The Secret of Narcisse Author:Edmund Gosse Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. Next morning the sunlight was brightly suffused through a pearly firmament of broken cloud. Rosalie, pausing in the course of her household work, stopped... more » for a moment at the doorway to gaze up the street in the clear air. There was no excuse for her to meddle with Narcisse at his business thus early in the day, yet she could not resist glancing in his direction. The shop was out of sight, hidden by a buttress of the church, but her attention was attracted by a point of intense vermilion color against the gray church wall in front of her lover's booth; this red object was absolutely motionless, and below it the sunlight fell on astripe of golden hue. Her curiosity was excited, and she could not resist stepping out into the Place, and wandering a few paces upwards towards the church. The mystery was easily explained. The trumpeter, with a scarlet feather in his dark green velvet cap, had been chatting with Narcisse at his workshop, and was now being induced to stand at a little distance in profile, to serve as a model. Drawn onwards by her inquisitive mood, Rosalie passed the steps of St. Maze, and turning the corner found herself in front of the little booth where Narcisse was seated, his brows somewhat bent, sketching from his friend the trumpeter. A rough lump of red wax was piled on the board at his side, and with his long supple fingers, by aid of the little boxwood spatula that modellers use, he wasmaking a profile head for the clasp of a belt. There was not a word said. The trumpeter nodded as he saw the girl approach, but did not disturb a single muscle of his face. Narcisse greeted her, out of his full grey eyes, with a look of discreet affection, and motioned that she should lean, out of eye-shot, on the other side of his table. The sketching went on in silence,...« less