Alpha Book

With the love of the
ideal republic in his heart, he shed his blood at Mentana for the great
conservative principle, he fired his last shot for the same cause at the
Porta Pia on the twentieth of September 1870; a month later he was
fighting for France under the gallant Charette--whether for France
imperial, regal or republican he never paused to ask; he was wounded in
fighting against the Commune, and decorated for painting the portrait of
Gambetta, after which he returned to Rome, cursed politics and married
the woman he loved, which was, on the whole, the wisest course he could
have followed. He has two children, both girls, aged now respectively
fifteen and thirteen. His virtues are many, but they do not include
economy. Though his savings are small and he depends upon his brush, he
lives in one wing of an historic palace and gives dinners which are
famous. He proposes to reform and become a miser when his daughters are
married.
"Misery will be the foundation of my second manner, my angel," he says
to his wife, when he has done something unusually extravagant.


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