"
"Oh! oh!"
"I'll leave you to do it, or not; I don't ask it. But you're an honest
man."
"Come, out with it!"
"Well, I'm prepared to bring you a father, mother, and only daughter."
"All for me?"
"Yes--they want their portraits taken. These bourgeois--they are crazy
about art--have never dared to enter a studio. The girl has a 'dot' of
a hundred thousand francs. You can paint all three,--perhaps they'll
turn out family portraits."
And with that the old Dutch log of wood who passed for a man and who
was called Elie Magus, interrupted himself to laugh an uncanny laugh
which frightened the painter. He fancied he heard Mephistopheles
talking marriage.
"Portraits bring five hundred francs apiece," went on Elie; "so you
can very well afford to paint me three pictures."
"True for you!" cried Fougeres, gleefully.
"And if you marry the girl, you won't forget me."
"Marry! I?" cried Pierre Grassou,--"I, who have a habit of sleeping
alone; and get up at cock-crow, and all my life arranged--"
"One hundred thousand francs," said Magus, "and a quiet girl, full of
golden tones, as you call 'em, like a Titian."
"What class of people are they?"
"Retired merchants; just now in love with art; have a country-house at
Ville d'Avray, and ten or twelve thousand francs a year."
"What business did they do?"
"Bottles."
"Now don't say that word; it makes me think of corks and sets my teeth
on edge.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25