THE STORY OP A PICTURE.

poverty and ill-fortune had made him perfectly careless
of what passed around him.
 "Do you remember having met there a boy named
Leonardo Selvico ? "
 He was silent, and Leonardo went on--" Perhaps
you recollect having known there a child named Maria,
the sister "
 I do-I do. What of her ? Where is she ?"
exclaimed the young man, starting up, as he inter-
rupted him.
 "AhI then you remember her. Pietro, her brother,
is before you."
 The artist looked at Leonardo for a few moments
in silence. Then he exclaimed, as if awaking from a
dream, What! Maria's brother--her brother! "
 And with sudden warmth he embraced his visitor,
who received his long-lost companion with open arms.
 When Pietro became calmer he wished to give
Leonardo a brief history of his long trials and sorrows,
since he left Castaro, to begin the career of an artist
in Florence. But Leonardo would not permit him to
dwell on such a subject. He knew that Maria's anxiety
would be great until his return, and he bade Pietro leave
with him the wretched room, where he toiled so long.
He paid a debt owing to the woman who had admitted
him, and, having entered the carriage which was wait-
ing for them, they were in a few moments on their
way to the Villa di Selvico.


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