nt Steinbock, dressed in black, struck the Baron as a very
gentlemanly young man.

"Would you undertake a bronze statue?" he asked, as he held up the
group.

After admiring it on trust, he passed it on to his wife, who knew
nothing about sculpture.

"It is beautiful, isn't it, mamma?" said Hortense in her mother' ear.

"A statue! Monsieur, it is less difficult to execute a statue than to
make a clock like this, which my friend here has been kind enough to
bring," said the artist in reply.

The dealer was placing on the dining-room sideboard the wax model of the
twelve Hours that the Loves were trying to delay.

"Leave the clock with me," said the Baron, astounded at the beauty of
the sketch. "I should like to show it to the Ministers of the Interior
and of Commerce."

"Who is the young man in whom you take so much interest?" the Baroness
asked her daughter.

"An artist who could afford to execute this model could get a hundred
thousand francs for it," said the curiosity-dealer, putting on a
knowing and mysterious look as he saw that the artist and the girl were
interchanging glances. "He would only need to sell twenty copies
at eight thousand francs each--for the materials would cost about a
thousand crowns for each example. But if each copy were numbered and
the mould destroyed, it would certainly be possible to meet with twenty
amateurs only too glad to possess a replica of such a work."

"A hundred thousand francs!" cried Steinbock, looking from the dealer to
Hortense, the Baron, and the Baroness.

"Yes, a hundred thousand francs," repeated the dealer. "If I were rich
enough, I would buy it of you myself for twenty thousand francs; for by
destroying the mould it would become a valuable property. But one of the
princes ought to pay thirty or forty thousand francs for such a work to
ornament his drawing-room. No man has ever succeeded in making a clock
satisfactory alike to the vulgar and to the connoisseur, and this one,
sir, solves the difficulty."

"This is for yourself, monsieur," said Hortense, giving six gold pieces
to the dealer.

"Never breath a word of this visit to any one living," said the artist
to his friend, at the door. "If you should be asked where we sold the
group, mention the Duc d'Herouville, the famous collector in the Rue de
Varenne."

The dealer nodded assent.

"And your name?" said Hulot to the artist when he came back.

"Count Steinbock."

"Have you the papers that prove y