Artists  who  were  consulted,  and  among  them  Stidmann,
were  of  opinion  that  the  man  who  had  sketched  those  two
models  was  capable  of  achieving  a  statue.  The  Marshal  Prince
de  Wissembourg,  Minister  of  War,  and  President  of  the  Com-
mittee for  the  subscriptions  to  the  monument  of  Marshal


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COUSIN  BETTY  99

Montoomet^  called  a  meeting,  at  which  it  was  decided  that  the
execution  of  the  work  should  be  placed  in  Steinbeck's  hands.
The  Comte  de  Eastignac,  at  that  time  TJnder-secretary  of
State,  wished  to  possess  a  work  by  the  artist,  whose  glory  was
waxing  amid  the  acclamations  of  his  rivals.  Steinbeck  sold
to  him  the  charming  group  of  two  little  boys  crowning  a  little
girl,  and  he  promised  to  secure  for  the  sculptor  a  studio  at-
tached to  the  Government  marble-quarries,  situated,  as  all  the
world  knows,  at  Le  Gros-Caillou.
This  was  success,  such  success  as  is  won  in  Paris,  that  is  to
say,  stupendous  success,  that  crushes  those  whose  shoulders
and  loins  are  not  strong  enough  to  bear  it — as,  be  it  said,  not
unfrequently  is  the  case.  Count  Wenceslas  Steinbeck  was
written  about  in  all  the  newspapers  and  reviews  without  his
having  the  least  suspicion  of  it,  any  more  than  had  Made-
moiselle Fischer.  Every  day,  as  soon  as  Lisbeth  had  gone  out
to  dinner,  Wenceslas  went  to  the  Baroness'  and  spent  an  hour
or  two  there,  excepting  on  the  evenings  when  Lisbeth  dined
with  the  Hulots.
This  state  of  things  lasted  for  several  days.
