spurs of his boots were seen. His waist was pinched in by a white
waistcoat with chased gold buttons, which was laced behind to serve as
a belt. The waistcoat, buttoned to the throat, showed off his broad
chest, and a black satin stock obliged him to hold his head high, in
soldierly fashion. A handsome gold chain hung from a waistcoat pocket,
in which the outline of a flat watch was barely seen. He was twisting
a watch-key of the kind called a "criquet," which Breguet had lately
invented.

"The fellow is fine-looking," thought Joseph, admiring with a
painter's eye the eager face, the air of strength, and the
intellectual gray eyes which Max had inherited from his father, the
noble. "My uncle must be a fearful bore, and that handsome girl takes
her compensations. It is a triangular household; I see that."

At this instant, Baruch and Francois entered.

"Have you been to see the tower of Issoudun?" Flore asked Joseph. "No?
then if you would like to take a little walk before dinner, which will
not be served for an hour, we will show you the great curiosity of the
town."

"Gladly," said the artist, quite incapable of seeing the slightest
impropriety in so doing.

While Flore went to put on her bonnet, gloves, and cashmere shawl,
Joseph suddenly jumped up, as if an enchanter had touched him with his
wand, to look at the pictures.

"Ah! you have pictures, indeed, uncle!" he said, examining the one