"How can they refuse it, without all the vermilion of my Red Sea mounting to their cheeks, and covering them with the blush of shame?" ejaculated the artist, as he gazed on his picture. "When I think that there is five hundred francs' worth of color there, and at least a million of genius, without counting my lovely youth, now as bald as my old hat! But they shan't get the better of me! Till my dying day, I will send them my picture. It shall be engraved on their memories."

"The surest way of ever having it engraved," said Colline, in a plaintive tone, and then added to himself, "very neat, that; I shall repeat it in society!"

Marcel continued his imprecations, which Schaunard continued to put to music.

"Ah they won't admit me! The government pays them, lodges them, and gives them decorations, on purpose to refuse me once a year; every first of March! I see their idea! I see it clearly! They want to make me burn my brushes. They hope that when my Red Sea is refused, I will throw myself out of the window of despair. But they little know the heart of man, if they think to take me thus. I will not wait for the opening of the Exhibition. From today, my work shall be a picture of Damocles, eternally suspended over their existence. I will send it once a week to each of them, at his home in the bosom of his family; in the very heart of his private life. It shall trouble their domestic joys; they shall find their roasts burnt, their wines sour, and their wives bitter! They will grow mad rapidly, and go to the Institute in strait-waistcoats. Ha! Ha! The thought consoles me."

Some days later, when Marcel had already forgotten his terrible plans of vengeance against his persecutors, he received a visit from Father Medicis. So the club called a Jew, named Salomon, who at that time was well known to all the vagabond of art and literature, and had continual transactions with them. Father Medicis traded in all sorts of trumpery. He sold complete sets of furniture from twelve francs up to five thousand; he bought everything, and knew how to dispose of it again, at a profit. Proudhon's bank of exchange was nothing in comparison with the system practiced by Medicis, who possessed the genius of traffic to a degree at which the ablest of his religion had never before arrived. His shop was a fairy region where you found anything you wished for. Every product of nature, every creation of art; whatever issued from the bowels of the earth or the head of man, was an object of commerce for him. His business included everything; literally everything that exists; he even trafficked in the ideal. He bought ideas to sell or speculate in them. Known to all literary men and all artists, intimate with the palette and familiar with the desk, he was the very Asmodeus of the arts. He would sell you cigars for a column of your newspaper, slippers for a sonnet, fresh fish for paradoxes; he would talk, for so much an hour, with the people who furnished fashionable gossip to the journals. He would procure you places for the debates in the Chambers, and invitations to parties. He lodged wandering artistlings by the day, week, or month, taking for pay, copies of the pictures in the Louvre. The green room had no mysteries for him. He would get your pieces into the theater, or yourself into the boudoir of an actress. He had a copy of the "Almanac of Twenty Five Thousand Addresses" in his head, and knew the names, residences, and secrets of all celebrities, even those who were not celebrated.

A few pages copied from his waste book, will give a better idea of the universality of his operations than the most copious explanation could.

"March 20, 184—."

"Sold to M. L——, antiquary, the compass which Archimedes used at the
siege of Syracuse. 75 fr.
Bought of M. V——, journalist, the entire works, uncut, of M. X——,
Member of the Academy. 10 fr.
Sold to the same, a criticism of the complete works of M. X——, of the
Academy. 30 fr.
Bought of M. R——, literary man, a critical article on the complete
works of M. Y——, of the Academy. 10 fr., plus half a cwt. of charcoal
and 4 lbs. of coffee.
Sold to M. Y——, of the Academy, a laudatory review (twelve columns) of
his complete works. 250 fr.
Sold to M. G——, a porcelain vase which had belonged to Madame Dubarry.
18 fr.
Bought of little D——, her hair. 15 fr.
Bought of M. B——, a lot of articles on Society, and the last three
mistakes in spelling made by the Prefect of the Seine. 6 fr, plus a pair
of Naples shoes.
Sold to Mdlle. O——, a flaxen head of hair. 120 fr.
Bought of M. M——, historical painter, a series of humorous designs. 25
fr.
Informed M. Ferdinand the time when Mme. la Baronne de T—— goes to
mass, and let him for the day the little room in the Faubourg
Montmartre: together 30 fr.
Bought of M. J——, artist, a portrait of M. Isidore as Apollo. 6 fr.
Sold to Mdlle R—— a pair of lobsters and six pair of gloves. 36 fr.
Received 3 fr.
For the same, procured a credit of six months with Mme. Z——,
dressmaker. (Price not settled.)
Procured for Mme. Z——, dressmaker, the custom of Mdlle. R——.
Received for this three yards of velvet, and three yards of lace.
Bought of M. R——, literary man, a claim of 120 fr. against
the——newspaper. 5 fr., plus 2 lbs. of tobacco.
Sold M. Ferdinand two love letters. 12 fr.
Sold M. Isidore his portrait as Apollo. 30 fr.
Bought of M. M——, a cwt. and a half of his work, entitled 'Submarine
Revolutions.' 15 fr.
Lent Mme la Comtesse de G—— a service of Dresden china. 20 fr.
Bought of M. G——, journalist, fifty-two lines in his article of town
talk. 100 fr., plus a set of chimney ornaments.
Sold to Messrs. O—— and Co., fifty-two lines in the town talk of
the——. 300 fr., plus two sets of chimney ornaments.
Let to Mdlle. S. G—— a bed and a brougham for the day (nothing). See
Mdlle. S. G——'s account in private ledger, folios 26 and 27.
Bought of M. Gustave C—- a treatise on the flax and linen trade. 50
fr., and a rare edition of Josephus.
Sold Mdlle. S. G—— a complete set of new furniture. 5000 fr.
For the same, paid an apothecary's bill. 75 fr.
For the same, paid a milkman's bill. 3 fr. 85 c."

Those quotations show what an extensive range the operations of the Jew Medici covered. It may be added, that although some articles of his commerce were decidedly illicit, he had never got himself into any trouble.

The Jew comprehended, on his entrance, that he had come at a favorable time. In fact, the four friends were at that moment in council, under the auspices of a ferocious appetite, discussing the grave question of meat and drink. It was a Sunday at the end of the month—sinister day.