[Illustration: TITUS IN A RED CAP AND A GOLD CHAIN
"The best are sold," said the gentle proprietor.
The enthusiast was about to ask the name of the artist, when he suddenly caught sight of the _Christ at Emmaus_. His blood stirred in him. That little shop became an altar of art, and he an initiate. It was not the same version as the Louvre picture, but only one mind--the mind of Rembrandt, only one heart--the heart of Rembrandt, could have so felt and stated the pathos and emotion of that scene. Controlling his excitement, he turned over the prints and paused, startled, before _Abraham's Sacrifice_. What was it that moved him? He could hardly say. But he was moved to an extraordinary degree by that angel standing, with outstretched wings, by Abraham's side, hiding the kneeling boy's eyes with his hand, staying the knife at the supreme moment. He turned the prints, and paused again before _The Prodigal Son_. Some might call the face of the kneeling prodigal hideous, might assert that the landscape was slight and unfinished, that the figure in the doorway was too sketchy. Not so our enthusiast. This was the Prodigal Son, and as for the bending, forgiving father, all that he could imagine of forgiveness and pity was there realised in a few scratches of the needle. He turned the prints and withdrew _Tobit Blind_. In every line of this figure of the wandering old man, tapping his stick upon the pavement, feeling his way by the wall, was blindness, actual blindness--all the misery and loneliness and indignity of it.
"Are these for sale?" he asked the smiling proprietor, without the slightest hope that he could afford one.
"Oh yes! _Tobit Blind_ you can have for two shillings and sixpence. _Abraham's Sacrifice_, _Christ at Emmaus_, and _The Prodigal Son_ are four shillings each."
The enthusiast could not conceal his astonishment. "I thought Rembrandt's etchings cost hundreds of pounds," he said.
"They do, but these are merely reproductions. Only a millionaire could hope to possess a complete collection of first states. These are the reproductions that were issued with M. Blanc's catalogue. He made them from the best proofs in his own collections, and from the public museums. You should compare them with the originals. The difference will astonish you. It's candle-light to sunlight, satinette to the finest silk."