It was sold
to a Paris collection for a few thousand francs, and had thereafter
attracted no further attention. It was not worth talking about.
Now, when this dazzling Faun came to light and Mr. van Koppen announced
his intention of purchasing the masterpiece for his collection, his
art-expert, Sir Herbert Street--the eminent connoisseur whom he had
filched form the South Kensington Museum with the bribe of a Cabinet
Minister's salary--thought it his duty to compare the disfigured Demeter
with this new and marvelous thing. Sir Herbert Street was an
inordinately vain man, but conscientious at the same time and, in
matters of art-criticism, sufficiently reliable. Not every art-expert
would have done what he did. In the interests of his employer he took
the trouble of journeying to Paris and carefully examining the poor
Demeter fragment. Then, viewing the Locri Faun at Nepenthe in the
presence of Count Caloveglia, he made rather a subtle remark.
"Does it not strike you, Count, that there is a curious, an evasive
kind of resemblance between this Faun and the Demeter?"
The old man beamed with joy at these words.
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