I took good care not to criticise my learned friend's etymology, but wishing to give in my turn a proof of penetration: 'Hold there, Sir!' said I; 'allowing that Myron has dedicated something, it does not follow that it is this statue.'
'How!' cried he, 'was not Myron a famous Greek? Talent would be perpetuated in his family; and it was one of his descendants who made this statue. Nothing can be more certain.'
'But,' replied I, 'I see upon the arm a small hole; this, I think, has served to support something; a bracelet, for instance, which this Myron has given to Venus as an expiatory offering. Myron was some unfortunate lover with whom Venus was angry, and he endeavored to appease her by the offering of a golden bracelet. You must remember that fecit, made, is often used for consecravit, dedicated. They are, indeed, synonymous words; and I could give you more than one example, had I Gruter, or rather Orelius at hand. Nothing is more natural than that a lover should see Venus in a dream, and imagine that she commanded him to give a golden bracelet to her statue. Myron dedicated a bracelet to her. Afterward the barbarians, or perhaps some sacrilegious robber'——
'Ah! ha! one may easily see that you have written romances;' cried my host, giving me his hand to assist me in descending. 'No, no; Sir, it is a production of the school of Myron. Only look at the workmanship, and you must be convinced of it.'
As I make it a rule never to contradict an obstinate antiquary, I bowed with an air of conviction, and merely observed: 'It is indeed an admirable piece of work.'
'Ah! mon Dieu!' cried Monsieur Peyrade, 'here is another piece of Vandalism! Somebody has thrown a stone at my statue!'
He had just perceived a white mark a little below the bosom of the Venus. I had noticed a similar appearance upon the fingers of the right hand, which I supposed had been grazed by the stone thrown at her the preceding evening, or more probably a fragment had been detached by the concussion, and had glanced off from the hand. I related to my host the insult of which I had been the witness, and the prompt punishment which followed. He laughed heartily, and comparing the apprentice to Diomede, wished that, like the Greek hero, he might see all his companions changed into white birds.
The breakfast bell here interrupted our classic conference; and, as on the previous evening, I was again compelled to eat the share of four. Then came the farmers of Monsieur Peyrade; and while he gave them audience, his son took me to see a new carriage which he had lately bought at Toulouse for his intended bride. I admired it in silence, and then accompanied him to the stables, where he kept me half an hour, boasting of his horses, relating their pedigree, and telling me how many prizes they had won at the neighboring races. At length, by a transition from a gray palfrey which he intended for her use, he was led to speak of his future wife.
'We shall see her to-day,' said he. 'I don't know whether you will think her pretty or not. You Parisians are hard to please; but every body here and at Perpignan think her beautiful. But the best of it is, she is deuced rich. Her old aunt at Prades, who died the other day, left her all her money; and no trifle either. Don't you think I am a lucky dog?'
I was grieved to see the young man so much more affected by the dower than by the amiable qualities of his future wife.