I have brought them here to
receive the verdict of this dear lady, who is a good critic, for all she
may pretend to the contrary. I am the inventor of this peculiar style of
statuette--of subject, manner, material, everything. Touch them, I pray
you; handle them freely--you needn't fear. Delicate as they look, it is
impossible they should break! My various creations have met with great
success. They are especially admired by Americans. I have sent them all
over Europe--to London, Paris, Vienna! You may have observed some little
specimens in Paris, on the Boulevard, in a shop of which they constitute
the specialty. There is always a crowd about the window. They form a
very pleasing ornament for the mantel-shelf of a gay young bachelor, for
the boudoir of a pretty woman. You couldn't make a prettier present to a
person with whom you wished to exchange a harmless joke. It is not
classic art, signore, of course; but, between ourselves, isn't classic
art sometimes rather a bore? Caricature, burlesque, _la charge_, as the
French say, has hitherto been confined to paper, to the pen and pencil.
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