"Oh, no; I am too jealous, I should make you unhappy; but I will
gladly be a sort of comrade," replied Lisbeth.
"Ah, if only you knew how I longed for some fellow-creature, even a
tyrant, who would have something to say to me when I was struggling in
the vast solitude of Paris!" exclaimed Wenceslas. "I regretted
Siberia, whither I should be sent by the Emperor if I went home.--Be
my Providence!--I will work; I will be a better man than I am, though
I am not such a bad fellow!"
"Will you do whatever I bid you?" she asked.
"Yes."
"Well, then, I will adopt you as my child," said she lightly. "Here I
am with a son risen from the grave. Come! we will begin at once. I
will go out and get what I want; you can dress, and come down to
breakfast with me when I knock on the ceiling with the broomstick."
That day, Mademoiselle Fischer made some inquiries, at the houses to
which she carried her work home, as to the business of a sculptor. By
dint of many questions she ended by hearing of the studio kept by
Florent and Chanor, a house that made a special business of casting
and finishing decorative bronzes and handsome silver plate. Thither
she went with Steinbock, recommending him as an apprentice in
sculpture, an idea that was regarded as too eccentric. Their business
was to copy the works of the greatest artists, but they did not teach
the craft. The old maid's persistent obstinacy so far succeeded that
Steinbock was taken on to design ornament.
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