nday Philippe came again. This time his mother was
visibly present at the sitting. She served the breakfast, and put
several questions to the dragoon. She then learned that the nephew of
old Madame Hochon, the friend of her mother, played a considerable part
in literature. Philippe and his friend Giroudeau lived among a circle of
journalists, actresses, and booksellers, where they were regarded in the
light of cashiers. Philippe, who had been drinking kirsch before posing,
was loquacious. He boasted that he was about to become a great man. But
when Joseph asked a question as to his pecuniary resources he was dumb.
It so happened that there was no newspaper on the following day, it
being a fete, and to finish the picture Philippe proposed to sit again
on the morrow. Joseph told him that the Salon was close at hand, and as
he did not have the money to buy two frames for the pictures he wished
to exhibit, he was forced to procure it by finishing a copy of a Rubens
which had been ordered by Elie Magus, the picture-dealer. The original
belonged to a wealthy Swiss banker, who had only lent it for ten days,
and the next day was the last; the sitting must therefore be put off
till the following Sunday.

"Is that it?" asked Philippe, pointing to a picture by Rubens on an
easel.

"Yes," replied Joseph; "it is worth twenty thousand francs. That's what
genius can do. It will take me all to-morrow to get the tones of the
original and make the copy look so old it can't be distinguished from
it."

"Adieu, mother," said Philippe, kissing Agathe. "Next Sunday, then."

The next day Elie Magus was to come for his copy. Joseph's friend,
Pierre Grassou, who was working for the same dealer, wanted to see it
when finished. To play him a trick, Joseph, when he heard his knock, put
the copy, which was varnished with a special glaze of his own, in place
of the original, and put the original on his easel. Pierre Grassou was
completely taken in; and then amazed and delighted at Joseph's success.

"Do you think it will deceive old Magus?" he said to Joseph.

"We shall see," answered the latter.

The dealer did not come as he had promised. It was getting late; Agathe
dined that day with Madame Desroches, who had lately lost her husband,
and Joseph proposed to Pierre Grassou to dine at his table d'hote. As he
went out he left the key of his studio with the concierge.

An hour later Philippe appeared and said to the concierge,--

"I am to si