“We will see,” said the pale girl, shrugging her shoulders, and her sister exclaimed: 

“Show him the sword too, that you always declared belonged to Caesar, and if he gives you a good sum for it you will buy me a gold bracelet.”

“And Selene shall have one, too.  But I have the very slenderest hopes of the sword, for a connoisseur would hardly pronounce it genuine.  But I have other things, many others.  Hark! that is Gabinius, no doubt.  Quick, Selene, throw the chiton round me again.  My chaplet, Arsinoe.  A well-to-do man always gets a higher price than a poor one.  I have ordered the slave to await him in the ante-room; it is always done in the best houses.”

The curiosity dealer was a small, lean man, who, by prudence and good luck, had raised himself to be one of the most esteemed of his class and a rich man.  Having matured his knowledge by industry, and experience, he knew better than any man how to distinguish what was good from what was indifferent or bad, what was genuine from what was spurious.  No one had a keener eye; but he was abrupt in his dealings with those from whom he had nothing to gain.  In circumstances where there was profit in view, he could, to be sure, be polite even to subservience and show inexhaustible patience.  He commanded himself so far as to listen with an air of conviction to the steward as he told him in a condescending tone that he was tired of his little possessions, that he could just as well keep them as part with them; he merely wanted to show them to him as a connoisseur and would only part with them if a good round sum were offered for what was in fact idle capital.  One piece after another passed through the dealer’s slender fingers, or was placed before him that be might contemplate it; but the man spoke not, and only shook his head as he examined every fresh object.  And when Keraunus told him whence this or that specimen of his treasures had been obtained, he only murmured—­ “Indeed” or “Really,”

“Do you think so?” After the last piece of property had passed through his hands, the steward asked: 

“Well, what do you think of them?”

The beginning of the sentence was spoken confidently, the end almost in fear, for the dealer only smiled and shook his head again before he said: 

“There are some genuine little things among them, but nothing worth speaking of.  I advise you to keep them, because you have an affection for them, while I could get very little by them.”

Keraunus avoided looking towards Selene, whose large eyes, full of dread, had been fixed on the dealer’s lips; but Arsinoe, who had followed his movements with no less attention, was less easily discouraged, and pointing to her father’s Apelles, she said:  And that picture, is that worth nothing?”

“It grieves me that I cannot tell so fair a damsel that it is inestimably valuable,” said the dealer, stroking his gray whiskers.  “But we have here only a very feeble copy.  The original is in the Villa belonging to Phinius on the Lake of Larius, and which he calls Cothurnus.  I have no use whatever for this piece.”