ncs?" he repeated.

"To be exact, thirteen hundred; you will lend me the odd hundred?"

"And on what, in such a place, could you spend so much?"

"Ah! that is the question!" replied the happy girl. "If I have got a
husband, he is not dear at the money."

"A husband! In that shop, my child?"

"Listen, dear little father; would you forbid my marrying a great
artist?"

"No, my dear. A great artist in these days is a prince without a
title--he has glory and fortune, the two chief social advantages--next
to virtue," he added, in a smug tone.

"Oh, of course!" said Hortense. "And what do you think of sculpture?"

"It is very poor business," replied Hulot, shaking his head. "It needs
high patronage as well as great talent, for Government is the only
purchaser. It is an art with no demand nowadays, where there are no
princely houses, no great fortunes, no entailed mansions, no hereditary
estates. Only small pictures and small figures can find a place; the
arts are endangered by this need of small things."

"But if a great artist could find a demand?" said Hortense.

"That indeed would solve the problem."

"Or had some one to back him?"

"That would be even better."

"If he were of noble birth?"

"Pooh!"

"A Count."

"And a sculptor?"

"He has no money."

"And so he counts on that of Mademoiselle Hortense Hulot?" said the
Baron ironically, with an inquisitorial look into his daughter's eyes.

"This great artist, a Count and a sculptor, has just seen your daughter
for the first time in his life, and for the space of five minutes,
Monsieur le Baron," Hortense calmly replied. "Yesterday, you must know,
dear little father, while you were at the Chamber, mamma had a fainting
fit. This, which she ascribed to a nervous attack, was the result of
some worry that had to do with the failure of my marriage, for she told
me that to get rid of me---"

"She is too fond of you to have used an expression----"

"So unparliamentary!" Hortense put in with a laugh. "No, she did not use
those words; but I know that a girl old enough to marry and who does not
find a husband is a heavy cross for respectable parents to bear.--Well,
she thinks that if a man of energy and talent could be found, who would
be satisfied with thirty thousand francs for my marriage portion, we
might all be happy. In fact, she thought it advisable to prepare me for
the modesty of my future lot, and to hinder me from indulging in too
fervid dreams.--W