what surface! what curves! Ah, those shoulders! She's a magnificent
caryatide. What a model she would have been for one of Titians'
Venuses!"

Adolphine and Madame Hochon thought he was talking Greek; but Agathe
signed to them behind his back, as if to say that she was accustomed
to such jargon.

"So you think a creature who is depriving you of your property
handsome?" said Madame Hochon.

"That doesn't prevent her from being a splendid model!--just plump
enough not to spoil the hips and the general contour--"

"My son, you are not in your studio," said Agathe. "Adolphine is
here."

"Ah, true! I did wrong. But you must remember that ever since leaving
Paris I have seen nothing but ugly women--"

"My dear godmother," said Agathe hastily, "how shall I be able to meet
my brother, if that creature is always with him?"

"Bah!" said Joseph. "I'll go and see him myself. I don't think him
such an idiot, now I find he has the sense to rejoice his eyes with a
Titian's Venus."

"If he were not an idiot," said Monsieur Hochon, who had come in, "he
would have married long ago and had children; and then you would have
no chance at the property. It is an ill wind that blows no good."