He gazed at the canvas through tears.  Suddenly he raised himself proudly and flung a lightning glance upon the two painters.

“By the blood, by the body, by the head of Christ, you are envious men who seek to make me think she is spoiled, that you may steal her from me.  I—­I see her!” he cried.  “She is wondrously beautiful!”

At this moment Poussin heard the weeping of Gillette as she stood, forgotten, in a corner.

“What troubles thee, my darling?” asked the painter, becoming once more a lover.

“Kill me!” she answered.  “I should be infamous if I still loved thee, for I despise thee.  I admire thee; but thou hast filled me with horror.  I love, and yet already I hate thee.”

While Poussin listened to Gillette, Frenhofer drew a green curtain before his Catherine, with the grave composure of a jeweller locking his drawers when he thinks that thieves are near him.  He cast at the two painters a look which was profoundly dissimulating, full of contempt and suspicion; then, with convulsive haste, he silently pushed them through the door of his atelier.  When they reached the threshold of his house he said to them, “Adieu, my little friends.”

The tone of this farewell chilled the two painters with fear.

* * * * *

On the morrow Porbus, alarmed, went again to visit Frenhofer, and found that he had died during the night, after having burned his paintings.