"Hein?
it isn't dear; your nephew will take four thousand francs for new pictures in the place of the old ones.
It is," she whispered in his ear, "a very good way to give him four thousand francs; he doesn't look to me very flush--" "Well, nephew, I will pay you four thousand francs for the copies--" "No, no!" said the honest Joseph; "four thousand francs and the pictures, that's too much; the pictures, don't you see, are valuable--" "Accept, simpleton!" said Flore; "he is your uncle, you know." "Very good, I accept," said Joseph, bewildered by the luck that had befallen him; for he had recognized a Perugino.
The result was that the artist beamed with satisfaction as he went out of the house with the Rabouilleuse on his arm, all of which helped Maxence's plans immensely.

Neither Flore, nor Rouget, nor Max, nor indeed any one in Issoudun knew the value of the pictures, and the crafty Max thought he had bought Flore's triumph for a song, as she paraded triumphantly before the eyes of the astonished town, leaning on the arm of her master's nephew, and evidently on the best of terms with him.

People flocked to their doors to see the crab-girl's triumph over the family.

This astounding event made the sensation on which Max counted; so that when they all returned at five o'clock, nothing was talked of in every household but the cordial understanding between Max and Flore and the nephew of old Rouget.

The incident of the pictures and the four thousand francs circulated already.