Under promise of secrecy, Hortense the of her with her Cousin Betty. Then, when they got home, she the much-talked-of-seal to her father in of the of her views. The father, in the of his heart, at the skill and of girls who act on instinct, the of the which her love had in the of a single night to his daughter.
"You will see the I have just bought; it is to be home, and that dear Wenceslas is to come with the dealer. The man who that group ought to make a fortune; only use your to him an order for a statue, and rooms at the Institut "
"How you on!" her father. "Why, if you had your own way, you would be man and wife the legal period—in eleven days "
"Must we wait so long?" said she, laughing. "But I in love with him in five minutes, as you in love with at sight. And he loves me as if we had each other for two years. Yes," she said in reply to her father's look, "I read ten of love in his eyes. And will not you and accept him as my husband when you see that he is a man of genius? Sculpture is the of the Arts," she cried, her hands and jumping. "I will tell you "
"What, is there more to come?" asked her father, smiling.
The child's complete and had her father's peace of mind.
"A of the importance," said she. "I loved him without him; and, for the last hour, since him, I am about him."
"A little too crazy!" said the Baron, who was the of this passion.
"Do not me for in you," she. "It is so to say to my father's heart, ‘I love him! I am so happy in him!'—You will see my Wenceslas! His is so sad. The sun of in his eyes—and what an air he has! What do you think of Livonia? Is it a country? The idea of Cousin Betty's marrying that fellow! She might be his mother. It would be murder! I am of all she has done for him. But I don't think my marriage will her."
"See, my darling, we must nothing from your mother."
"I should have to her the seal, and I promised not to Cousin Lisbeth, who is afraid, she says, of mamma's laughing at her," said Hortense.
"You have about the seal, and none about your of her lover."
"I promised about the seal—I no promise about the sculptor."
This adventure, in its simplicity, came a to the of the family; the Baron, while his for her candor, to her that she must now to the of her parents.
"You understand, my child, that it is not your part to your cousin's lover is a Count, if he has all his papers properly certified, and if his is a for his respectability. As for your cousin, she five offers when she was twenty years younger; that will prove no obstacle, I to say."
"Listen to me, papa; if you wish to see me married, say a word to Lisbeth about it till just the is signed. I have been her about this for the last six months! Well, there is something about her "
"What?" said her father, puzzled.
"Well, she looks when I say too much, in joke, about her lover. Make inquiries, but me to my own boat. My ought to you."
"The Lord said, ‘Suffer little children to come Me.' You are one of those who have come again," the Baron with a touch of irony.
After the was announced, and the artist with his group. The that her daughter's at once the Baroness and then watchful, and the girl's and the light in her soon the so in her heart.
Count Steinbock, in black, the Baron as a very man.
"Would you a statue?" he asked, as he up the group.
After it on trust, he passed it on to his wife, who nothing about sculpture.
"It is beautiful, isn't it, mamma?" said Hortense in her mother' ear.
"A statue! Monsieur, it is less difficult to a than to make a clock like this, which my friend here has been to bring," said the artist in reply.
The was on the dining-room the model of the twelve Hours that the Loves were trying to delay.
"Leave the clock with me," said the Baron, at the of the sketch. "I should like to it to the Ministers of the Interior and of Commerce."
"Who is the man in you take so much interest?" the Baroness asked her daughter.
"An artist who to this model a hundred thousand for it," said the curiosity-dealer, on a and look as he saw that the artist and the girl were glances. "He would only need to sell twenty copies at eight thousand each—for the materials would cost about a thousand for each example. But if each copy were numbered and the destroyed, it would be possible to meet with twenty only too to a of such a work."
"A hundred thousand francs!" Steinbock, looking from the to Hortense, the Baron, and the Baroness.
"Yes, a hundred thousand francs," the dealer. "If I were rich enough, I would it of you myself for twenty thousand francs; for by the it would a valuable property. But one of the ought to pay thirty or thousand for such a work to ornament his drawing-room. No man has succeeded in making a clock satisfactory to the and to the connoisseur, and this one, sir, the difficulty."
"This is for yourself, monsieur," said Hortense, six gold pieces to the dealer.
"Never 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 the group, mention the Duc d'Herouville, the famous in the Rue de Varenne."
The assent.
"And your name?" said Hulot to the artist when he came back.
"Count Steinbock."
"Have you the papers that prove your identity?"
"Yes, Monsieur le Baron. They are in Russian and in German, but not legalized."
"Do you equal to a nine high?"
"Yes, monsieur."
"Well, then, if the I shall are satisfied with your work, I can secure you the for the of Marshal Montcornet, which is to be on his at Pere-Lachaise. The Minister of War and the old officers of the Imperial Guard have a large to us to select our artist."
"Oh, monsieur, it will make my fortune!" Steinbock, by so much at once.
"Be easy," the Baron graciously. "If the two ministers to I to your group and this sketch in are with these two pieces, your of a are good."
Hortense her father's arm so as to him.
"Bring me your papers, and say nothing of your to anybody, not to our old Cousin Betty."
"Lisbeth?" said Madame Hulot, at last the end of all this, though unable to the means.
"I give proof of my skill by making a of the Baroness," added Wenceslas.
The artist, by Madame Hulot's beauty, was the mother and daughter.
"Indeed, monsieur, life may upon you," said the Baron, by Count Steinbock's and manner. "You will out that in Paris no man is for nothing, and that always its here."
Hortense, with a blush, out to the man a Algerine sixty gold pieces. The artist, with something still of a gentleman's pride, with a color easy to interpret.
"This, perhaps, is the money your have you?" said Adeline.
"Yes, madame—my of art. It is not the first-fruits of my labor, for I have been a workman."
"Well, we must my daughter's money will you good luck," said she.
"And take it without scruple," added the Baron, that Wenceslas the in his hand of pocketing it. "The will be by some rich man, a perhaps, who will offer it with to so a work."
"Oh, I want it too much myself, papa, to give it up to in the world, a prince!"
"I can make a thing than that for you, mademoiselle."
"But it would not be this one," she; and then, as if of having said too much, she ran out into the garden.
"Then I shall the and the model as soon as I go home," said Steinbock.
"Fetch me your papers, and you will of me long, if you are equal to what I of you, monsieur."
The artist on this but take leave. After to Madame Hulot and Hortense, who came in from the garden on purpose, he off to walk in the Tuileries, not bearing—not daring—to return to his attic, where his would him with questions and his from him.
Hortense's of groups and by the hundred; he to the marble himself, like Canova, who was also a man, and nearly died of it. He was by Hortense, who was to him visible.
"Now then," said the Baroness to her daughter, "what all this mean?"
"Well, dear mamma, you have just Cousin Lisbeth's lover, who now, I hope, is mine. But your eyes, know nothing. Good Heavens! I was to keep it all from you, and I cannot help telling you "
"Good-bye, children!" said the Baron, his wife and daughter; "I shall go to call on the Nanny, and from her I shall a great about our man."
"Papa, be cautious!" said Hortense.
"Oh! little girl!" the Baroness when Hortense had out her poem, of which the morning's was the last canto, "dear little girl, Artlessness will always be the on earth!"
Genuine have an instinct. Set a man a dish of fruit and he will make no mistake, but take the without it. In the same way, if you allow a girl who is well up to choose a husband for herself, if she is in a position to meet the man of her heart, will she blunder. The act of nature in such cases is as love at sight; and in love, is second sight.
The Baroness' satisfaction, though under dignity, was as great as her daughter's; for, of the three of marrying Hortense of which Crevel had spoken, the best, as she opined, was about to be realized. And she this little as an answer by Providence to her prayers.
Mademoiselle Fischer's slave, at last to go home, he might his as a lover under his as an artist over his success.
"Victory! my group is to the Duc d'Herouville, who is going to give me some commissions," he, the twelve hundred in gold on the table the old maid.
He had, as may be Hortense's purse; it next to his heart.
"And a very good thing too," said Lisbeth. "I was myself to death. You see, child, money comes in slowly in the you have taken up, for this is the you have earned, and you have been at it for near on five years now. That money me for what you have cost me since I took your note; that is all I have got by my savings. But be sure of one thing," she said, after the gold, "this money will all be on you. There is there to keep us going for a year. In a year you may now be able to pay your and have a little of your own, if you go on in the same way."
Wenceslas, his successful, on the Duc d'Herouville.
"I will fit you out in a black suit, and you some new linen," said Lisbeth, "for you must appear presentably your patrons; and then you must have a larger and than your garret, and it property. You look so bright, you are not like the same creature," she added, at Wenceslas.
"But my work is a masterpiece."
"Well, so much the better! Do some more," said the creature, who was nothing but practical, and of the of or of in Art. "Trouble your no about what you have sold; make something else to sell. You have two hundred in money, to say nothing of your time and your labor, on that of a Samson. Your clock will cost you more than two thousand to execute. I tell you what, if you will to me, you will the two little boys the little girl with cornflowers; that would just the Parisians. I will go to Monsieur Graff the tailor going to Monsieur Crevel. Go up now and me to dress."
Next day the Baron, perfectly about Madame Marneffe, to see Cousin Betty, who was on opening the door to see who her visitor was, for he had called on her before. She at once said to herself, "Can it be that Hortense wants my lover?"—for she had the before, at Monsieur Crevel's, that the marriage with the Councillor of the Supreme Court was off.
"What, Cousin! you here? This is the time you have been to see me, and it is not for love of my that you have come now."
"Fine is the truth," said the Baron; "you have as as I have "
"Come, what are you here for? I am to you in such a kennel."
The room of the two by Lisbeth her as sitting-room, dining-room, kitchen, and workroom. The was such as a well-to-do artisan—walnut-wood chairs with seats, a small walnut-wood table, a work table, some prints in black frames, to the windows, the well and with cleanliness, not a of anywhere, but all cold and dingy, like a picture by Terburg in every particular, to the by a paper once and now to gray. As to the bedroom, no being had its secrets.
The Baron took it all in at a glance, saw the sign-manual of on every detail, from the cast-iron to the utensils, and his rose as he said to himself, "And this is virtue! What am I here for?" said he aloud. "You are too not to guess, and I had tell you plainly," he, and looking out across the through an opening he in the curtain. "There is a very woman in the house "
"Madame Marneffe! Now I understand!" she exclaimed, it all. "But Josepha?"
"Alas, Cousin, Josepha is no more. I was out of doors like a footman."
"And you would like...?" said Lisbeth, looking at the Baron with the of a on her a of an hour too soon.
"As Madame Marneffe is very much the lady, and the wife of an employe, you can meet her without yourself," the Baron on, "and I should like to see you neighborly. Oh! you need not be alarmed; she will have the for the of her husband's chief."
At this moment the of a was on the stairs and the of a woman the boots. The on the landing. There was a at the door, and Madame Marneffe came in.
"Pray me, mademoiselle, for thus upon you, but I failed to you yesterday when I came to call; we are near neighbors; and if I had that you were related to Monsieur le Baron, I should long since have your with him. I saw him come in, so I took the of across; for my husband, Monsieur le Baron, spoke to me of a report on the office which is to be the minister tomorrow."
She and nervous—but she had only upstairs.
"You have no need to play the petitioner, lady," the Baron. "It is I who should ask the of you."
"Very well, if it, pray come!" said Madame Marneffe.
"Yes—go, Cousin, I will join you," said Lisbeth judiciously.
The Parisienne had so on the chief's visit and intelligence, that not only had she herself for so an interview—she had her room. Early in the day it had been with flowers purchased on credit. Marneffe had helped his wife to the furniture, to the smallest objects, washing, brushing, and everything. Valerie to be in an of sweetness, to the and to him to have a right to be cruel; to him as a child would, with all the of tactics. She had Hulot. Give a Paris woman at four-and-twenty hours, and she will a ministry.
The man of the Empire, to the to the Empire, was no of the of modern love-making, of the in and the of since 1830, which to the weak woman being as the of her lover's desires—a Sister of Charity a wound, an herself.
This modern art of love a amount of phrases in the service of the Devil. Passion is martyrdom. Both parties to the Ideal, to the Infinite; love is to make them so much better. All these are but a for into the practical of it, more into a than of old. This hypocrisy, a of the times, is a in gallantry. The lovers are angels, and they behave, if they can, like two devils.
Love had no time for such analysis two campaigns, and in 1809 its successes were as as those of the Empire. So, under the Restoration, the Baron, a lady's man once more, had by some old friends now from the political firmament, like stars, and then, as he old, was by Jenny Cadine and Josepha.
Madame Marneffe had her after study of the Baron's past life, which her husband had in much detail, after up some in the offices. The of modern might have the of to the Baron; Valerie had up her mind as to her scheme; and we may say the trial of her power that she this answered her expectations.
