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Notwithstanding Gerôme's protestations, I had not the heart to refuse. He looked so miserable and helpless, and indeed was, as I discovered too late next day. Our new acquaintance then suggested sending for wine, to drink to the success of our journey.
The man takes the pretty, dimpled mischief to his bosom, warms his feet and hands at the fire, dries his bow and arrows, and lets him sip wine from his cup. Then, when Cupid is refreshed and warmed, he tries his arrows, now here, now there, and at last aims one straight at his benefactor's heart, and laughing at the jest, flies out at the open door. Gérôme's picture was in three panels.
Gérôme's visit to Italy had awakened in him a strong interest in the life of the antique world, and this would naturally be strengthened by all that he would hear and see of the growing interest of the public in the same subject: an interest kindled by the discoveries of archaeologists in classic soil: in Greece and Italy, in Assyria and Egypt.
Gerome's wasted frame, would take from the world a woman whose existence was a burden to herself and threatened to prove a curse to others. The passionate cry of Salome's soul was, "Punish me in any way, and all other ways! Send sickness, destitution, humiliation, let every other affliction smite me; but save me from the intolerable anguish of seeing that woman his wife!
But throughout everything he does it is easy to perceive the academic point of view, the classic temperament. David assuredly would never have chosen one of Gérôme's themes; but had he chosen it, he would have treated it in much the same way.
Stewart uses that dining-room, but it did not look as if it was made to eat in. I still like Gérôme's 'Chariot Race' better than anything else of his. The 'Horse Fair' was too high up for me to enjoy it, and a little too mixed up. St. Petersburg is another planet, and, strange to say, is an agreeable planet. Some of these Europeans are far ahead of us in many things.
A long pause followed, and a heavy sigh, only partially smothered, indexed the contest that raged under Mrs. Gerome's calm exterior. "Edith, would you have inferred from Dr. Grey's manner that he was not only acquainted with my history, but yours, at least, so far as it intersected mine? Did he furnish no hint, no clew, that aided you in your search?" "None whatever.
Happy period of youth, of freedom from care! Hope and the future opened bright before us; the sky was blue!" Gérôme's pictures of Eastern life make a gallery by themselves.
For a long time we sat in front of the lagoon where the swans were silently floating and, and the Palace of Fine Arts was reproduced with a deeper mystery. Now we could feel the relation between the colonnade and Gerome's chariot race. "It would please Gerome if he could know that he had helped to inspire so magnificent a conception," said the architect.
Gérôme's picture did nothing to advance his fortunes with the public. 1848 was a stormy time in France and in all Europe, and people were not in the mood to be amused with such trifles as Anacreon and his Cupid.
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