If the novelist had been capable of observing, he would have perceived in the detailed knowledge the banker had of the catalogue the trace of a study too deep not to accord with some mysterious project.
"There are treasures here," said he.

"See these two Chinese vases with convex lids, with the orange ground decorated with gilding.

Those are pieces no longer made in China.

It is a lost art.

And this tete-a-tete decorated with flowers; and this pluvial cope in this case.