ut that will take your time, and you will want canvas and colors,"
said Flore. "You will have to spend money. Come, Pere Rouget, offer your
nephew a hundred francs for each copy; here are twenty-seven pictures,
and I think there are eleven very big ones in the garret which ought to
cost double,--call the whole four thousand francs. Oh, yes," she went
on, turning to Joseph, "your uncle can well afford to pay you four
thousand francs for making the copies, since he keeps the frames--but
bless me! you'll want frames; and they say frames cost more than
pictures; there's more gold on them. Answer, monsieur," she continued,
shaking the old man's arm. "Hein? it isn't dear; your nephew will take
four thousand francs for new pictures in the place of the old ones.
It is," she whispered in his ear, "a very good way to give him four
thousand francs; he doesn't look to me very flush--"

"Well, nephew, I will pay you four thousand francs for the copies--"

"No, no!" said the honest Joseph; "four thousand francs and the
pictures, that's too much; the pictures, don't you see, are valuable--"

"Accept, simpleton!" said Flore; "he is your uncle, you know."

"Very good, I accept," said Joseph, bewildered by the luck that had
befallen him; for he had recognized a Perugino.

The result was that the artist beamed with satisfaction as he went
out of the house with the Rabouilleuse on his arm, all of which helped
Maxence's plans immensely. Neither Flore, nor Rouget, nor Max, nor
indeed any one in Issoudun knew the value of the pictures, and the
crafty Max thought he had bought Flore's triumph for a song, as she
paraded triumphantly before the eyes of the astonished town, leaning on
the arm of her master's nephew, and evidently on the best of terms with
him. People flocked to their doors to see the crab-girl's triumph
over the family. This astounding event made the sensation on which Max
counted; so that when they all returned at five o'clock, nothing was
talked of in every household but the cordial understanding between Max
and Flore and the nephew of old Rouget. The incident of the pictures
and the four thousand francs circulated already. The dinner, at which
Lousteau, one of the court judges, and the Mayor of Issoudun were
present, was splendid. It was one of those provincial dinners lasting
five hours. The most exquisite wines enlivened the conversation. By
nine o'clock, at dessert, the painter, seated opposite to his uncle, and
between