To play him a trick, Joseph, when he heard his knock, put the copy, which was varnished with a special glaze of his own, in place of the original, and put the original on his easel.

Pierre Grassou was completely taken in; and then amazed and delighted at Joseph's success.
"Do you think it will deceive old Magus ?" he said to Joseph.
"We shall see," answered the latter.
The dealer did not come as he had promised.

It was getting late; Agathe dined that day with Madame Desroches, who had lately lost her husband, and Joseph proposed to Pierre Grassou to dine at his table d'hote.

As he went out he left the key of his studio with the concierge.
An hour later Philippe appeared and said to the concierge,-- "I am to sit this evening; Joseph will be in soon, and I will wait for him in the studio." The woman gave him the key; Philippe went upstairs, took the copy, thinking it was the original, and went down again; returned the key to the concierge with the excuse that he had forgotten something, and hurried off to sell his Rubens for three thousand francs.

He had taken the precaution to convey a message from his brother to Elie Magus, asking him not to call till the following day.
That evening when Joseph returned, bringing his mother from Madame Desroches's, the concierge told him of Philippe's freak,--how he had called intending to wait, and gone away again immediately.
"I am ruined--unless he has had the delicacy to take the copy," cried the painter, instantly suspecting the theft.