, but still Leger-Massieu had not yet put the work in hand. It
was not until fifty-three days had come and gone, that, after calling
over the books against the list that had been drawn up by Monsieur
Sariette, the binder gave them out to his workmen. The little
_Lucretius_ with the Prior de Vendome's arms not being mentioned on the
list, it was assumed that it had been sent by another customer.

And as it did not figure on any list of goods received it remained shut
up in a cupboard, from which Leger-Massieu's son, the youthful Ernest,
one day surreptitiously abstracted it, and slipped it into his pocket.
Ernest was in love with a neighbouring seamstress whose name was Rose.
Rose was fond of the country, and liked to hear the birds singing in the
woods, and in order to procure the wherewithal to take her to Chatou one
Sunday and give her a dinner, Ernest parted with the _Lucretius_ for ten
francs to old Moranger, a second-hand dealer in the rue Saint X----, who
displayed no great curiosity regarding the origin of his acquisitions.
Old Moranger handed over the volume, the very same day, to Monsieur
Poussard, an expert in books, of the faubourg Saint Germain, for sixty
francs. The latter removed the stamp which disclosed the ownership of
the matchless copy, and sold it for five hundred francs to Monsieur
Joseph Meyer, the well-known collector, who handed it straight away for
three thousand francs to Monsieur Ardon, the bookseller, who immediately
transferred it to Monsieur R----, the great Parisian bibliopolist, who
gave six thousand for it, and sold it again a fortnight later at a
handsome profit to Madame la Comtesse de Gorce. Well known in the higher
ranks of Parisian society, the lady in question is what was called in
the seventeenth century a "curieuse," that is to say, a lover of
pictures, books, and china. In her mansion in the Avenue d'Jena she
possesses collections of works of art which bear witness to the
diversity of her knowledge and the excellence of her taste. During the
month of July, while the Comtesse de Gorce was away at her chateau at
Sarville in Normandy, the house in the Avenue d'Jena, being unoccupied,
was visited one night by a thief said to belong to a gang known as "The
Collectors," who made works of art the special objects of their raids.

The police enquiry elicited the fact that the marauder had reached the
first floor by means of the waste-pipe, that he had then climbed over
the balcony, force