After breakfast the dealer was announced, and the artist with his
group. The sudden flush that reddened her daughter's face at once made
the Baroness suspicious and then watchful, and the girl's confusion
and the light in her eyes soon betrayed the mystery so badly guarded
in her simple heart.
Count 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.
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