"
An hour later Ernest had ridden out of Havre. He reached Paris in
twelve hours, where his first act was to secure a place in the
mail-coach for Havre on the following evening. Then he went to three
of the chief jewellers in Paris and compared all the whip-handles
that they could offer; he was in search of some artistic treasure
that was regally superb. He found one at last, made by Stidmann for
a Russian, who was unable to pay for it when finished,--a fox-head
in gold, with a ruby of exorbitant value; all his savings went into
the purchase, the cost of which was seven thousand francs. Ernest
gave a drawing of the arms of La Bastie, and allowed the shop-people
twenty hours to engrave them. The handle, a masterpiece of delicate
workmanship, was fitted to an india-rubber whip and put into a morocco
case lined with velvet, on which two M.'s interlaced were stamped in
gold.
La Briere got back to Havre by the mail-coach Wednesday morning in
time to breakfast with Canalis. The poet had concealed his secretary's
absence by declaring that he was busy with some work sent from Paris.
Butscha, who met La Briere at the coach-door, took the box containing
the precious work of art to Francoise Cochet, with instructions to
place it on Modeste's dressing-table.
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